Unseal our shops, Kano patent medicine dealers beg govt

Since the Federal High Court judgment endorsing the decision to relocate patent medicine dealers from an open drug market in Sabon Gari to the coordinated Wholesale Centre at Dangwauro village, shops at Maikarami and Niger Street have remained closed.

Daily Trust reports that the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) in collaboration with the Pharmacist Council of Nigeria (PCN) had, on February 17, raided and sealed not less than 1,321 patent medicine stores in Sabon Gari open market of Kano.

The operation took place 72 hours after the Federal High Court ordered the drug dealers to vacate their open market premises and relocate to the Coordinated Wholesale Centre at Dangwauro village on Kano-Zaria Road in the state.

The Nigeria Civil Defence Corps took over the place, a situation that left many dealers who earn a living from the business idle.

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When Daily Trust visited the place at Mai Karami Plaza, even though the place is no longer as lively as it used to be, there were some few people who came to the place to hang around.

“As a family man, I can’t continue staying at home like a woman. We used to come to the place very often. If I stay at home all the time, I am sure I will be depressed and frustrated,” said one of the shop owners, who preferred to be anonymous.

Many shop owners who spoke to Daily Trust expressed their displeasure over the current situation, urging the government to look into their plight and save the situation.

One of the shop owners, Alhaji Mushaffa’u Awaisu, argued that the shops at Dangwauro are not big enough to accommodate all the medicine dealers in the state.

“Honestly the shops are not enough to accommodate all of us. We have about 5000 shop owners at both Mai Karami and Malam Kato plazas and the shops at Dangwaro are not more than 600, including those that are under construction. How can this be possible? I think it is not right to relocate people where you know is not enough for them.

“We are not challenging the government’s decision to relocate us to Dangwauro or wherever government decides to relocate us. We are law-abiding citizens. I am personally among those who faulted the association’s decision to take legal action against the government. It is not true that we don’t want to relocate because we don’t want to be regulated as the PCN claims. These are the people who collect N100,000 annually as a leavy from each shop. I don’t think you cannot collect anything from the person that you know is operating a business illegally,” he said.

Another shop owner, Abdul Usman, said many of their colleagues share a single shop at Dangwaro.

“I can tell you that about four or six people are sharing a single shop at Dangwauro. How on earth can four people share a single room and operate the same business under a single shade. This is outrightly against the PCN guidelines,” he said.

“We are appealing to the government, as it is our only hope, to look into the matter and save our businesses from collapsing. You know if a drug is not kept in non-cooling premises, it degrades into another thing and it will expire. And definitely, we are at the receiving end. We urge the government, as a matter of urgency, to intervene.”

In an interview with Daily Trust, the Chairman, Nigeria Association of Patent and Propriety Medicine Dealers (NAPPMED) in Kano State, Alhaji Musbahu Yahaya Khalid, expressed concern that over 50,000 members of the association have been out of job as a consequence of the relocation.

Khalid said shops in the new location are expensive and many of the patent store owners may not be able to afford the rent.

“How can a person with small capital purchase a shop at the rate of N20 million or N30 million or rent a shop at N1.5 million or N2 million? This made some of our members use their vehicles as their shops,” the chairman said.

He added that the relocation would increase their running costs and push prices up.

“We have been sent out of business for about 70 days now. Many of us have died and some have been diagnosed with so many ailments. And you know the consequences of unemployment. Do they want us to engage in armed robbery, kidnapping, banditry, or what? The government should consider its action, especially with the current economic predicament in the country.”

Investigation by Daily Trust revealed that the situation has also triggered price hike of essential drugs.

Malam Ali Muazu told Daily Trust that a particular medicine which was sold at N4000 is now sold at N20,000.

“I used to buy drugs for my aged mother at the rate of N4000 but now I purchase the same drugs at N20,000. Though there is inflation in the country, this relocation saga contributed to the hike,” Muazu said.

Meanwhile, NAPPMED has again approached a Federal High Court asking it to compel NAFDAC to unseal their shops.

Counsel for NAPPMED, Abdulaziz Adam, told the court that NAFDAC, in flagrant violation of an interim order granted by the court, has denied members access to their shops.

The lawyer said NAFDAC had continued to harass members despite the interim order granted by the court on March 19 directing parties to maintain status quo, adding that no part of Justice Amobeda’s judgment (delivered previously) directed them to seal any shop.

However, counsel for NAFDAC, Chizoba Odanwu, told the court that some shops were already sealed and others were in the process of being sealed when the interim order was given, seeking the court’s guidance on the status quo.

In his ruling, Justice Muhammed Abdullahi Liman held that an interim order is not meant for action already taken or completed, averring that an interim order means to stop further action.

The judge granted an application of the respondents seeking extension of time and adjourned until April 30 for argument on the substantive matter.

The NAFDAC Director Investigation and Enforcement, Mr Francis Ononiwu, who is also the Director of Enforcement at PCN, Stephen Esumobi, said the medicine dealers were operating illegally, hence  enforcement was taken to ensure they relocate to Coordinated Wholesale Centre (CWC) in Dangwaro, along Zaria Road, Kano.

“This is in line with our regulatory function of enforcement and ensuring that only quality drugs are in circulation,” he said.

He noted that most of the medicine premises visited were operating in an unventilated environment.

“Some drugs need to be stored in a refrigerator, especially life-saving drugs, for quality output.

“Some of these medicine stores smuggle narcotic and banned products such as analgen injection and tramadol illegally.

He urged the dealers to see their relocation as the survival of public health and as part of an effort to continue to fight against substandard drugs.

“You cannot be making money at the expense of other people. Let them move to where these drugs can be properly regulated and monitored. Any drug that is coming to Kano must pass through our agencies. And I want to make it clear that this is not the PCN or NAFDAC’s decision. It is a presidential committee on pharmaceutical sector reform that initiated this and we are doing it as a lead agency,” he said.

In another development, NAPPMED in Kano  says the three months’ plight of its members has come to an end as the association gets an alternative market place  to continue their business.

NAPPMED chairman Musbahu Yahaya Khalid disclosed this to newsmen during an inspection tour to the Dalar Gyada Market in Dala Local Government Area of the state.

Khalid said the Dalar Gyada market, chosen as an alternative place, was approved by the Kano State government for the dealers to relocate to from the open drug market in Sabon Gari.

“We are satisfied with the place which the Kano State Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf described as Kano medicine village and the shops here are much better than those of Dangwaro. The shops at Dangwaro are not up to 600 while the shops here are more than 5000 which is big enough to accommodate all of us,” he said.

He said they were given two months’ ultimatum to relocate from the open drug market in Sabon Gari.

He said the market is equipped with offices for police, NAFDAC, as well as PCN, to regulate activities of the dealers.

“In this market, we provide offices for NAFDAC and PCN. We are ready to cooperate with these agencies in order to regulate and monitor our activities in the market. As an association, we will support them to fish out any person that deals with counterfeit and hard drugs in the market,” Khalid said.