A former Nigerian Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, sold his interests in Integrated Logistic Services (INTELS) Nigeria Limited through a series of transactions, an official has said.
Intels spokesperson, Tommaso Ruffinoni, made this known in a statement on Monday.
He said Mr Abubakar exited the company with his family as of December 2020, adding that the deals began in December 2018 and were concluded last year.
PREMIUM TIMES earlier reported how Mr Abubakar divested from the country’s largest logistics company that provides comprehensive integrated services for the nation’s oil and gas industry.
A statement by his media adviser, Paul Ibe, on Monday said Mr Abubakar, the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party in the 2019 general elections, took the decision because the Muhammadu Buhari government has destroyed the economy.
”It assumed greater urgency in the last five years, because this Government has been preoccupied with destroying a legitimate business that was employing thousands of Nigerians because of politics, ” the statement read.
Meanwhile, ThisDay reported that the former vice president sold his shares in Intels to Orleal Investment Group, the parent company of Intels, for various amounts totalling over $100 million.
READ ALSO: Atiku sells off shares in Intels, blames Buhari for decision
Mr Ruffinoni noted that with Mr Abubakar’s divestment of his interest in the company, two of his children working in the organisation, Adamu Atiku Abubakar and Aminu Atiku Abubakar, have ended their working relationship with the organisation.
Intels has in the last few years had a running battle with the Nigerian government.
The disagreement resulted in the cancellation of the company’s 17-year-old pilotage monitoring contract with the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA).
In October 2017, the government directed the NPA to terminate the boat pilotage monitoring and supervision agreement with Intels. The NPA also accused Intels of refusing to remit boat pilotage revenue in the firm’s custody put at about $207.646 million (N78.905 billion) at the time, among other revenues.
Intels in its reaction denied the allegations, adding that it was rather being owed by the NPA.
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