The Governor (Abdullahi Ganduje) has made a declaration that wholesale trade and distributing of pharmaceuticals at the Sabon-Gari open market is now illegal. With this he gave direction for dealers to vacate the area and take up residence at Coordinator Wholesale Centre, Kano Economic City. Otherwise they will risk forced eviction and being prosecuted, they have a two week timeframe to make the change.
The facility has been commissioned, but Abdullahi said that they are facing high rates of psychotropic and adulterated prescribed drugs because of the large population. He explained that there needs to be strict controls of imported drugs as the negative impact of substance abuse on society as a whole, is a continuous challenge. There will be relevant agencies working to ensure the CWC delivers on its mandate.
The Minister of Health (Osagie Ehanire) praised Kano for being the first to take real action on the Federal Government’s guidelines, twenty years after the idea. He said that it is the only proper solution to the unsafe trade of pharmaceuticals on the open market. He made hints that the current offices were trying to work together to safeguard public health and motivate the renewal of CWC in Lagos, Abia and Anambra States to make the open drug markets illegal.
The PCN’s Registrar Addressing (Ibrahim Babashehu Ahmed), spoke to a press conference, saying that the chaotic drug distribution system in some major markets has affected quality, safety and efficacy massively across the country for medicine. He was saying that there would not be safe storage of medicines and harmful misuse of different drugs.
Source: The Guardian, February 2023
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