… NAPPMED must obey court order- Pharm Yahaya insists
By Hassan Zaggi
Unless manufacturers and importers bow to court order, in the next few days, medicine supply in some parts of Kano and neigbouring states who depend on their supply from Kano will suffer.
This is because the National Agency for Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) and the Pharmacy Council of Nigeria (PCN), have warned manufacturers and importers of medicines to cease supply of medicines in two popular locations in Kano. The two locations are: Niger Street and Sabon Gari Market, Kano.
The warning is contained in a statement jointly signed by NAFDAC and PCN and made available to journalists in Abuja, Sunday.
The warning by the two agencies is premised on the court judgement delivered by the Court of Appeal which ordered medicine dealers to vacate the two locations and relocate to the coordinated wholesale centre in Dangwauro, Kano.
“NAFDAC and PCN hereby warn manufacturers, importers, company representatives, and all distributors to, from this very moment cease supplying, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, and other regulated medical products to facilities or companies in Niger Street, Sabon Gari market, or elsewhere outside the coordinated wholesale centre in Dangwauro, Kano State.
“This is to ensure good distribution of pharmaceuticals, medical devices, etc., and prevent circulation of substandard and falsified medicines in the market.”
Any company found doing this, the statement said, “risks losing the site license as well as the product license. Retailers, hospitals and others should also take note.”
It would be recalled that on Friday last week, Justice Simon Amobeda, dismissed the suit filed by Nigeria Association of Patent Proprietary medicine dealers (NAPPMED), challenging their relocation to coordinated Wholesale market to Dangwauro Economic City at the outskirt of Kano.
In the ruling, Justice Amobeda held that the suit lacked merit and the plaintiff have no locus standi to challenge the relocation order by PCN, a body empowered to regulate their business.
The court ruled that the suit is an abuse of court process as there has been an earlier case which the court decided on June 30,2023, in favour of the defendant.
“The allegations of threatened arrest is unsubstantiated and vague.
“Whether the members cannot do business freely, the plaintiff and its members need to obey their parent body as there is no ploy to hamper their rights to trade.
“Whether the Constitution is supreme to PCN Act, the court held that the PCN Act is not in any way in conflict with the provision of the constitution. The question needs not arise as there is no provision that goes against the constitution.”
In his reaction, an Abuja based pharmacists, Audu Yahaya, has insisted that the NAPPMED have no option than to obey the ruling of the court.
According to him: “This is a good development because NAFDAC and PCN are working for the best interest of Nigerians. These two locations are notorious for selling fake and substandard products that is why they don’t want to leave.
NAFDAC has been on this issue discussing with them for along time for them to leave to a coordinated market where the medicines can be controlled but they refuse to listen.
“All the fake drugs you see people hawking on the roads and motor parks are all gotten from those spots.
“I commend the efforts of NAFDAC and PCN in trying to sanitise the drugs market in Nigeria.”
