Medbury Medical Services has suspended its driver for using its ambulance to convey 10 cartons of stolen Tramadol.
The company, in a statement on Thursday, said that the driver hijacked the ambulance without permission.
Officials of the Nigeria Customs Service, Apapa Area Command, had on Wednesday announced the arrest of two suspects caught with 10 cartons of stolen tramadol conveyed in an ambulance at Apapa ports.
Medbury, a health provider responsible for emergency medical services to Apapa Warf, had at all times stationed its ambulances within the terminal.
The company had earlier discovered that the whereabouts of the driver and ambulance were unknown and missing before the news broke.
The company said it had launched investigation into how the vehicle was used for the illegal activity.
“The initial assumption was that the driver had stolen the ambulance, but we were later informed that the driver had been intercepted by Customs officers at the Port and Tramadol was discovered in the vehicle.
“We will like to clarify that the driver was at the time of the incident not authorised to move the vehicle out of the premises and acted on his own accord,” the statement said.
“We immediately provided a replacement, a fully equipped ambulance, as soon as we were notified of the incident and the driver involved has been suspended indefinitely, pending the report of the investigation.”
The company commended moves by customs officials to further investigate the matter.
“While the terminal interfaces with Nigerian Customs and the issue of investigation is ongoing, we are on standby to offer assistance within our capacity and knowledge on the issue as well as receive any useful information from the terminal on its perspective on the issue,” the company said.
