The arraignment follows Oluwasanmi’s arrest and detention by the Nigeria Police Force over allegations linked to his whistleblowing activities against Alpha-Beta Consulting Limited.
Activist and whistleblower, Comrade Segun Oluwasanmi, has been arraigned before the Ogba Magistrate Court, Lagos, according to information released by rights advocacy group, Committee for Defence of Human Rights (CDHR).
In a statement issued on Friday, the group described the arraignment as a critical moment and called on activists, comrades and supporters of justice to mobilise in solidarity with Oluwasanmi.
“The struggle continues in the open, and solidarity is not optional,” the statement read, urging supporters to converge in support of the activist.
CDHR emphasised unity among activists, declaring that “an injury to one is an injury to all,” while calling for collective action in response to the development.
The group concluded its statement with a call for unity and resilience, using the phrase “Viva Aluta.”
The arraignment follows Oluwasanmi’s arrest and detention by the Nigeria Police Force over allegations linked to his whistleblowing activities against Alpha-Beta Consulting Limited.
Background
On Thursday, SaharaReporters reported that Oluwasanmi, a former employee of Alpha-Beta Consulting Limited, had detained by police at the State Intelligence Department (SID) Command Headquarters in Ikeja, Lagos.
A relative of Oluwasanmi told SaharaReporters on Thursday morning that he was taken into custody at the SID Command Headquarters on Wednesday.
The family member added that Oluwasanmi was allowed to contact his family and lawyer shortly before his detention.
“He was just asked to call his family and lawyer when they decided to detain him few minutes to 7 p.m. yesterday,” the relative stated.
According to the family, police claimed the arrest was over allegations of cyber bullying against Alpha-Beta Consulting Limited, a firm widely linked to President Bola Tinubu.
“They claimed his offence was cyber bullying against Alpha Beta. We knew he was arrested for exposing the corruption in the company,” the relative said, adding that he was arrested by officers at the Nigeria Police Force Command Headquarters, Ikeja.
Oluwasanmi’s arrest followed a series of petitions and public allegations he made against Alpha-Beta Consulting Limited, a private firm contracted by the Lagos State Government for tax and revenue collection.
The allegations were submitted to the Nigeria Police Force, the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), with copies also sent to the Federal and Lagos State Ministries of Finance through the Lagos State chapter of the Committee for the Defence of Human Rights (CDHR).
In his petition, Oluwasanmi accused the firm of systematic tax evasion through the under-declaration of staff salaries and under-remittance of statutory taxes.
“What Alpha-Beta has been doing is this: they divided our salary into two, so that they will not pay tax on everything,” he said.
“What you will see in the payroll, especially up to 2022, is half of my salary. They were paying tax only on part of our salaries, and even on that part, they were underpaying,” he added.
According to Oluwasanmi, the smaller portion of salaries reflected on payroll meant that taxes were calculated on a reduced base and allegedly under-remitted.
“You are paying tax on the salary you divided into two. You are paying tax on one part. The part you are paying tax on, you are also still underpaying,” he said.
Internal company correspondence attached to the petition appeared to support his claims. A memo dated April 30, 2024, signed by the Head of Human Capital Management, Anjolaoluwa Grace Ige, disclosed that a Lagos State Internal Revenue Service (LIRS) audit uncovered under-remittance of tax.
In earlier interviews with SaharaReporters, Oluwasanmi also alleged entrenched corruption, victimisation and harassment within Alpha-Beta Consulting after he began exposing alleged fraud.
“I joined and I was exposing fraud,” he said.
He alleged irregularities across departments, including human resources, procurement and finance, claiming preferential treatment and inflated contracts.
“Within six months, he had inflated contracts in his care to the tune of over six million. I did the investigation. I have the reports,” Oluwasanmi said of a procurement manager.
He further alleged, “For instance, a carton of printing paper was sold for ₦5,900. They bought it for ₦9,600. That’s an extra ₦3,700 on one carton.”
Oluwasanmi said his actions initially earned him commendations and rewards from the company.
“I won ₦1,000,000 in 2019… he mentioned to everybody that he liked what I was doing,” he said, adding that he later received another reward for uncovering excessive cloud service payments.
However, he claimed his situation changed after he accused the company’s Chief Technology Officer of forging his signature.
“I resigned on November 6 after they replied and asked me to be reporting to Olumide, the CTO who forged my signature,” he said.
“That was where he confessed to copying my signature, but they never released the report despite my follow-ups,” Oluwasanmi added.