Steve Agbota, with agency report
Medbury Medical Services, owner of the ambulance illegally used to convey 10 cartons of stolen tramadol, has suspended a driver employed by the company.
The company, in a statement yesterday, said the driver hijacked the ambulance without permission.
Medbury insisted its ambulance was unlawfully hijacked and also disclosed that it has immediately suspended the driver and launched investigation into how the vehicle was used for the illegal activity.
Meanwhile, Customs said it intercepted the ambulance, owned by the Medbury Medicals, loaded with 10 cartons of 225mg of stolen tramadol tablets at the Apapa port.
The Hyundai Ambulance, with registration number LND605XW, was intercepted with the drugs worth about N2.8 million, while the driver tried to smuggle it out of the ports in an emergency manner.
Two suspects, Michael Ajibade (driver) and Olatunde Emmanuel (escort), were said to have been intercepted by Customs officers at about 11p.m last Friday on their way out of the port in the ambulance, which was usually stationed at the port complex for medical emergencies and belonged to Medbury Medical Services, an industrial medical services provider.
The Area Commander, Mohammed Abba-Kura, said the Duty Paid Value (DPV) of the stolen drugs stands at (approximately) N59.4 million.
The driver, Ajibade, an elderly man, denied knowledge of the content of the 10 cartons, stating that his yet-to-be-identified principal(s) promised him N2,000 to take the items across the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) gate, just as the dockworker, who escorted the articles, said he was only promised N50,000.