Nigeria’s leading oil and gas logistics company, Integrated Logistics Services Limited (Intels), has severed ties with one of its major shareholders, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar.
In a statement Monday, Intels spokesman, Tommaso Ruffinoni, said that Intels parted ways with Atiku and his family last year after he sold off his shares and exited the company.
Ruffinoni disclosed that Atiku, through his family trust, Guernsey Trust International, sold his shares in Intels’ parent company, Orlean-Invest Group, in a deal that lasted between December 2018 and January 2019, for approximately $60 million.
“In the period between April and May 2020, Mr. Atiku Abubakar converted his remaining shares into a convertible bond that he subsequently monetised up to a residual sum of approximately $29 million,” Ruffinoni said.
“When he requested to cash in the above mentioned sum, our Group contested to Mr. Atiku Abubakar a debt, towards our Group, of $24.1 million.
“Without having received any answer regarding the matter, on November 30th, 2020 Mr. Atiku Abubakar was informed about the set-off of such sum while we made available the remaining sum of $5.4 million.”
The statement added that “with the completion of the above mentioned transactions, the era of Mr. Atiku Abubakar family’s involvement with the Group, Orlean-Intels, is over.
“On December 1, 2020, our Group terminated also the working relationship with Mr. Atiku Abubakar’s sons, Mr. Adamu Atiku Abubakar and Mr. Aminu Atiku Abubakar, and since that date our Group do not have any contacts, neither direct nor indirect, with members of Mr. Atiku Abubakar’s family.”