The Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Atiku Abubakar, says as an officer of the Nigeria Customs Service, he was allowed to buy major shares in a private company.
Atiku said this at an event titled, ‘The Candidate’, in Abuja on Wednesday.
The moderator, Kadariah Ahmed, had asked Atiku whether it was right of him to set up a logistics company to do clearing and forwarding at the Apapa Port while he was still in active service.
However, Atiku said he did not set up the company but only bought shares at the time.
“It was not an abuse of office because it was an issue of share purchase and at that point it was very lawful for public officers to buy shares. I don’t know how old you were but there was the Indigenisation Decree which was passed by the military government which allowed public officers to legitimately acquire shares.”
The former Vice-President said the company, which eventually metamorphosed into INTELS, was an oil and gas company and not a clearing and forwarding company as alleged.
He said INTELS is not a monopoly as reported. “There was competition. It was not a monopoly,” he said.