Integrated Logistics Services Limited (Intels) says its business is not hindered by political influences from the President Muhammadu Buhari-led government.
Recall, according to Aledeh News, that Intels severed ties with its co-founder, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar on Monday, after the latter sold his shares in Intels’ parent company, Orlean Invest Holding.
The transactions were executed through Guernsey Trust, in deals that began in December 2018 and concluded in 2020.
Confirming his divestment from the company through his media aide, Paul Ibe, the former vice president blamed Buhari’s government for trying to destroy the company because of political differences.
“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,” Ibe had said in a statement.
However, in a statement by Intels spokesman, Tommaso Ruffinoni, on Tuesday, the company said its decisions had been devoid of political considerations.
It stated that it had always operated according to market logic.
“Intels Nigeria Limited and its parent company, Orlean Invest Holding, in relation to some statements that appeared in the press yesterday and today, categorically deny that its business has at some time been hindered by political influences from the current government,” the statement read.
“The company has always operated according to market logic, thanks to its history and commitment to the development of the Nigerian economy in the oil and gas logistics sector.
“The ongoing contradictions are part of a natural commercial divergence, which will hopefully be resolved, as in the past, by a new approach, in the interest of all the parties, also according to the social role that Intels plays in the country.”
