One of Nigeria’s terminal operator, A. P. Moller Terminal Limited Apapa has sacked its entire security department over its personnel security involvement in the theft of over 200 cartons of Tramadol, a control drug that has become an abused drug amongst Nigerian youths. Confirming the development, Public Relation Officer of the Apapa Port Command of the Nigeria Customs Service, NCS, Mr. Usman Abdullahi said that four security personnel from APMT were handed over to Customs to investigate their involvement of the theft of cartons of Tramadol from a container. He also said that one of the suspected fainted when he heard he was being arrested for the theft of the controlled drug as others are cooperating with Customs with information.
He said that the incident occurred on Friday last week adding that investigation is still ongoing on the matter so as to get everyone involved in the infraction. He further said that Customs officers are not allowed to go near the examination bay when the examination bay is closed, and the security of the place rest on the shoulders of APMT. He said ‘‘this is a case of theft by the security personnel, what actually happened is that some of their security personnel on duty last vandalised one of the six containers and carted away some cartons of Tramadol, that is exactly what happened.
‘‘Currently, we have three of their security personnel in our custody and they are being interrogated, those that were on duty that very night the incident happened, the management of APMT handed them over to us for investigation and they are cooperating with us very well.
“Investigation is ongoing because we want to know the actual content of the container with what we have on our records. Unofficially, I can tell that about 200 cartons of Tramadol were carted away, I do not have the accurate figure because they are still counting and I do not want to give you figure that is not correct, I am just informing you, by Monday we will have a true picture of the total number of cartons that were stolen.
Meanwhile, sources in the terminal said that Customs and Police involved in the infraction were also among suspects detained by Customs Enforcement Unit. The sources also said that the security personnel does not have the boldness to steal such consignments from containers without the backing and encouragement of both officers of the Nigeria Customs Service and Police attached to the terminal. On the involvement of Customs and Police officers, Abdullahi said that there is no Customs or Police officer in their custody as at the time of filling this report. The Command’s spokesman also said that Customs officers do not carry their duties at night adding that this incident occurred in the midnight.
“Whenever the examination bay is closed, the security of that lie solely on the shoulder on APMT security, they have their security personnel there. Examination bays close between 5:30 and sometimes 6: 00 p m depending on the work load, and once examination is closed, nobody has access to the examination excerpt APMT security or their staff and this incident happened in the middle of the night so I do not know how our officers are involved.
“Investigation is still ongoing, this incident happened on Friday and we were able to secure the container and our officer were there yesterday to ascertain actual content of what is missing. Any seized container is given to APMT to secure they have their own key and we have our own key, they handed over four security personnel for interrogation, maybe you have information I may not be privy to but as far as I know, the security that were handed over to us are still in our custody, they are cooperating with us, they are giving us information and they have not mentioned any officer’s name. Out of the four security personnel that were handed over to us, only three are in our custody, the fourth one is the hospital, we could not even question him. When the incident happened, he got information and he fainted, doctors are working on him.” It was also gathered that the management of APMT has sacked its security department as a result of the development.
