Medicine dealers in Kano State have decried what they termed ‘illegal charges’ of N300,000 by the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) and Pharmaceutical Council of Nigeria (PCN) for gaining access to their premises.
The medicine dealers also accused the Federal Government agencies of flagrant disobedience to court order that instructed the military to vacate their Sabon Gari premises pending the hearing of a fundamental human rights suit before a Federal High Court in Kano.
Addressing a press conference yesterday, Chairman of the Nigeria Association of Patent and Proprietary Medicine Dealers, Kano State chapter, Musbau Khalid, said medicine dealers have been subjected to untold hardship in the name of regulation.
Khalid regretted that over 5,000 medicine dealers have already been thrown out of business since the deployment of military men to their premises, preventing them from accessing their shops.
He stated that apart from denying his colleagues the rightful access to their properties, the occupation of the military has further generated huge economic loss as sensitive drugs in the stores may have lost potency.
Although Khalid acknowledged the judgment of Justice Simon Amobede of the Federal High Court, which ordered them to relocate to the new Coordinated Wholesale Centre (CWC) at Dangwaro village along Zaria road, he insisted that the judgment did not ask NAFDAC and PCN to take possession of their goods.
He emphasised that while the medicine dealers had since proceeded to appeal the judgment of the lower court, it had also secured another ruling of Justice A. M Liman of the Federal High Court, Kano, which granted an exparte motion, asking all parties to maintain the status quo.
He, however, expressed worries that only those who are willing to pay the illegal levy allegedly being charged by NAFDAC and PCN were being allowed to access the premises.
The dealers, therefore, appealed to the Kano State government and highly placed personalities to urgently intervene in the crisis to forestall a needless breakdown of law and order.
