Govt confiscates poisonous grains in Kano

A warehouse of adulterated grains has been discovered at the Dawanau International Grains Market, Kano, and some suspects arrested in connection with the incidence.

The acting Chairman of the Kano State Public Complaints and Anti-Corruption Commission (PCACC), Barrister Mahmoud Balarabe, said the officers discovered the warehouse after they received intelligence on the smuggling of adulterated grains in two trailers into the market on Thursday evening.

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He said the driver and a friend of the owner of the goods have been arrested.

Conducting journalists on Friday round the warehouse, he said sacks of adulterated maize and millets were found. “The maize is very dark and appears very toxic. What they do here is to mix the toxic one with a little of the good ones and then bag it before taking it to a company where they grind it for consumption. All along, people have been eating this poison,” he said.

He said as part of the commission’s further investigation, the leadership of the market would be invited “especially those in charge of maize and millets; we will sit with them and find out what they know about this issue.”

He also said effort is being intensified to arrest the owner of the goods and the warehouse, who was identified as one Adamu Maigari.

Meanwhile the Pharmacists Council of Nigeria (PCN) has sealed 537 pharmacies and patent medicine shops in the state for operating without registration, selling ethical medicines without the supervision of a pharmacist and other offences.

The Registrar of the Council, Elijah Mohammed, while addressing a press conference in Kano Thursday also said other offences that made the council sealed the premises include poor storage conditions and unauthorized sale of the substance, as well as poor documentation.

Represented by the council’s Director of Enforcement, Steven Esumobi, he said 1,581 premises comprising 657 pharmacies and 924 patent shops were visited across the state.

He added that many medicine shops and medicine dealers in Kano still operate without adequate storage facilities while others have illegal warehouses. He said these warehouses have large stock of ethical products and substances of abuse which could find their way into the camps of criminal elements in the society thus contributing to adverse security situations.

He noted that the activities of these illegal outlets tend to encourage the abuse and misuse of controlled medicines with the attendant negative social implications.

“It is in order to address these challenges that the enforcement team decided to visit the state, adding that the team had been in Kano State since the beginning of the week,” he said.

The team carried out the enforcement exercise with the collaboration of officers of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defense Corps (NSCDC), and 20 local government areas were visited.