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INTELS (known then as NICOTES- {Nigeria Container Services} was founded in the early 80s by an Italian (from Genoa, Italy) , who is now a nationalised Nigerian – Gabrielle Volpi and Atiku Abubakar.
When they started, Atiku was still in the Nigerian Customs, so he could not be involved in the day to day activities of the company. While Volpi was the brain and technical partner, Atiku was the financial, political and Nigerian partner.
They started its operations from a container office at Apapa Port, Lagos. The company was simply and strictly into oil servicing on a small scale logistics. As fate would have it, the company grew in bounds and finances, especially because it was structured around oil- the 80s
In 1989 when Atiku was not made the comptroller general of the Nigerian customs he decided to resign his position in order to concentrate on his private business and politics
This was what prompted Gabrielle Volpi, an Italian who had studied The African situation very well, to suggest that they should invite some big people (in the Nigerian parlance) into the business
The new INTELS (still NICOTES), began after Atiku’s retirement from the Customs. This new one had Gabrielle Volpi, Atiku Abubakar, Gen Shehu Yar’adua( Obasanjo ‘s VP in 1976- 79), HRH Ado Bayero ( The late Emir of Kano) and some other notable Nigerians as directors
The unprecedented financial strength that Atiku was able to give Shehu Yar’adua, was the reason why Atiku rose so fast in Shehu Yar’adua’s – Patriotic Front (PF) and later People’s Democratic Movement (PDM), such that in 4 years he has already overtaken people he met in politics.
it was Atiku that Yar’adua presented for the SDP primaries, before Kingibe chose to ignore the party leader’s directives and thus divided the votes, which made MKO, who was also in SDP, but not from PDM to win the primaries.*
God’s ways is not always the ways of man. During Abacha’s years, Atiku Abubakar was part of the few rich Nigerians who refused to support Abacha till the very end. He also fought Abacha with his resources. But with all of Gabrielle Volpi’s permutations and plans,
Abacha ended up arresting Shehu Yar’adua, our Intels first class General. Chased Atiku the young billionaire out of Nigeria, and seized NICOTES. That company that Volpi had given a first class protection. Abacha did the unthinkable. He seized it.
Abacha was never really about the business. He had more money from the Nigerian Government anyway. He only seized it to cripple the politicians and the pro-democracy folks.
In 1998, when Abdulsalam Abubakar became the Head of State, after the death of General Sani Abacha, he returned NICOTES back to the original owners, and NICOTES was renamed INTELS. N.B: INTELS was returned before Atiku became the VP.
NPA contract was signed in 2007 during Yar’adua’s period. There was no way Obasanjo would have signed such contract for Atiku during their turbulent and eventful 2nd term. It is also instructive to know that by 2007, shehu yaraduas shared were transfered to his family
Ironically, this contract was there all through the Jonathan years, when Atiku faced him in the PDP primaries, and when Atiku and some others left PDP for him.
Jonathan never cancelled it. You may call it stupidity, weakness, statesmanship or whatever, but the truth remains that Jonathan was good enough to separate politics from business.
In conclusion, even though the NPA contracts have been cancelled, but I can tell you that the best period for INTELS were not the NPA contract years. I believe INTELS should find their old rhythm and remember how they used to survive.
Buhari may have cancelled their contract, and he probably did it for political reasons, but he did not seize the company and he didn’t seize their license from operating as a logistics company. If indeed Buhari is targeting Atiku financial base because of 2019
The long and short of this debacle is that the Buhari camp, just like Lord Voldermort did in The Harry Potter series, has effectively MARKED Alhaji Atiku Abubakar (Waziri Adamawa) as a formidable opponent for President Muhammadu Buhari
