Ex-VP's Intels fights back on NPA's agreement cancellation

Logistic facilities and services provider Intels Nigeria Limited has condemned the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) for its unilateral decision to terminate its Pilotage Agency Agreement partnership on Tuesday, October 10, 2017.

Intels, co-owned by former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar and Italian businessman, Gabriele Volpi, said the deal was terminated without any consultation or due recourse to the terms of the agreement relating to conditions for termination.

The deal had meant that Intels collected required pilotage fee from ship owners on the NPA's behalf and retained 28% of the revenue as commission for the services rendered.

The Federal Government had directed Managing Director of the NPA, Ms. Hadiza Bala-Usman to terminate the deal in a letter communicated through the office of the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami.

In the letter, the AGF said the agreement runs counter to the Nigerian constitution especially with the implementation of the government's Treasury Single Account (TSA) policy.

The AGF directed the NPA to exit the agreement and adopt the TSA policy in collecting monies due to it.

In response to the termination notice sent to it on Tuesday by the NPA, Intels expressed its disappointment with the handling of the process and threatened to initiate legal actions.

Describing the termination as 'clearly preposterous' the company also threatened to reconsider its planned "investment for the largest African port in Badagry, for an amount of several billions dollars".

In the letter sent to the NPA by Intels' Director, Silvano Bellinato, the company gave Bala-Usman seven days from Wednesday to initiate renegotiation of the deal to something mutually beneficial.

The letter read, "Hence, in compliance with the Article 12 of the Agency Agreement between the NPA and INL, we hereby request you to schedule a meeting within seven days from the date of this letter, in order to analyse the residual critical areas of our relationship and to agree, to the possible extent, on a common solution.

“Should this not happen, we hereby notify you that, in accordance with Article 13 of the Agreement, we will refer the matters to arbitration, in order to safeguard our company from the significant damages and other adverse consequences that may result from this rather unbecoming decision.

“We wish to reach an amicable solution as soon as possible for this complicated matter so that we can avoid to request for the intervention of the court for the immediate payment of any amount due to us from NPA, also in light of the likely pressure for action from our banks, which we may be compelled to do, despite our unwillingness."

The company also claimed that the NPA owes it a debt "in the sum of 674,767,415.00 US$ (in addition to the interests accrued in the meantime)" as evidenced in correspondences exchanged between both parties.

Bellinato further expressed that the NPA's decision was surprising in light of the cordial relationship enjoyed by both parties.

"Our relationship has always been characterised by timely execution of projects undertaken on behalf of NPA as well as operational efficiency, which has variously been acknowledged by NPA.

"It is also easy for you to ascertain the regularity and timeliness of the payments made by us on a monthly basis for the lease of facilities and throughput fees, equal to an amount of over 170 million US$ since the award of the concession," he said.

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The cancellation of the agreement is expected to cost Intels millions of dollars as some might see it as a calculated move against Atiku who is expected to contest for the 2019 presidential elections as a potential opponent for President Muhammadu Buhari.