The driver of the truck which Anthony Joshua’s SUV ploughed into on Nigeria’s deadliest road has vanished, sparking a police manhunt, the Daily Mail can reveal.
Nigerian police confirmed that the man, who is in his 30s, but is not being named, is wanted in connection with the fatal crash which killed two of the champion boxer’s best friends.
They also confirmed that the truck had been parked on the hard shoulder of the road north of the capital Lagos illegally.
And in a further development the driver of the Lexus carrying Joshua is also being probed by cops for speeding and could face prosecution for reckless driving following Monday’s crash which saw Sina Ghami and Latif Ayodele lose their lives.
Officers at the Sagamu car pound near to the scene of the tragedy showed the Daily Mail the wrecked HGV which had been towed to the site just a few hours earlier.
Stored in a secluded part of the compound – the soya bean truck which is registered to a firm in Lagos still bears the scars of Monday’s crash which saw Joshua, 36, come within inches of losing his life.
The truck has damage to the drivers side where the Lexus smashed head-on and is covered in police tape, but the driver is still a fugitive.
‘He was parked on the side of the highway which is illegal, he had not broken down and he was not with the vehicle when the accident happened,’ said a Nigerian officer at the pound.
Sina Ghami and Latif Ayodele – both 36 – were part of Joshua’s inner circle and had travelled with the boxer to Nigeria just over a week after he pocketed a reputed £75m for his victorious fight with YouTuber Jake Paul.
This comes as police also focus on the Lexus driver as part of the investigation who they say was driving in excess of the 100kph speed limit before the crash.
Eyewitnesses describe the accident as sounding like a ‘bomb had gone off’ and cops say a tyre burst on the SUV before the crash.
Joshua is currently recuperating in the luxury Duchess International Hospital in Lagos in their Royal Suites, where packages start at £2,000 a night.
Nigeria’s president revealed on Monday that Joshua’s mother Yeta Odusanya is currently at his bedside at the hospital where he will see in the New Year.
Harrowing photos on social media showed two-time heavyweight world champion Joshua being extricated from the wrecked vehicle while wincing in pain.
Local police initially told Daily Mail Sport that Joshua was ‘stable’ and suffered only ‘minor’ injuries, although there are fears they could be more severe than publicised.
According to police in Nigeria, the Lexus was travelling over the 50mph speed limit and lost control during ‘an overtaking manoeuvre’ on what locals have claimed is one of Nigeria’s deadliest roads.
An eyewitness has also told Punch newspaper: ‘It was a two-vehicle convoy: a Lexus SUV and a Pajero SUV.
‘Joshua was seated behind the driver, with another person beside him. There was also a passenger sitting beside the driver, making four occupants in the Lexus that crashed. His security detail was in the vehicle behind them before the crash.
Sina Ghami and Kevin Latif Ayodele – died sitting just inches away from him, adding to the dozens who have been killed on the road in recent months – making the boxer’s survival all the more astonishing.
The numbers paint a grim picture of the perils on Nigeria’s most dangerous road, with 73 deaths along that 127.6km (79-mile) stretch – 60km (37 miles) shorter than the M25 – in just three months earlier this year.
Over the past 27 months, 11,396 people have been involved in 1,557 crashes on the Expressway, including 645 fatalities and 3,964 injured.
Nine were killed in one accident in February alone, while four people died in a crash along the stretch in March.
At least 1,593 people died on Nigeria’s roads in the first quarter of 2025 – just nine fewer than the number of fatalities in the UK across the entirety of 2024.
The stretch of road the accident happened on is notorious and the Daily Mail drove along it on the way to Sagamu and was shocked by the driving.
Lane discipline was completely ignored as was the 100kph speed limit and although the three-lane carriageway was in a good condition the hard shoulder was regularly blocked with vehicles and stalls.
Pedestrians took life into their own hands as they ambled across the motorway dodging speeding cars and there was a constant cacophony of klaxons.
The condition of some vehicles was eye opening with many battered and some held together with ropes and cables and several times cars drove the wrong way along the hard shoulder.
