From Desmond Mgboh, Kano
The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with agencies of the Kano State government towards addressing the importation of fake and expired drugs as well as unwholesome food items into the state.
The agencies in the state which are parties to this collaboration include the newly established Kano State Consumer Protection Council and Kano State Task Force on Drug Abuse with NAFDAC as the lead agency.
Disclosing this to the press, Ag Chiarman, Kano State Consumer Protection Council, Babba Baffa Dan Agundi expressed regret over the continued incidents of fake and expired drugs, including the mounting presence of unwholesome food items in the state.
Baffa explained that in the last three months of its inception, Kano State Consumer Protection council has consfiscated over N1 billion worth of fake and expired drugs and food items in the state..
He added that the council had arrested a total of 13 suspects, stating that nine others were on the run even as he stated that some of the culprits had entered into a plea bargain with the state to pay a fine and allow their destruction of their impounded items instead of going to court.
Baffa held most of the items confiscated by the Council were effected at Sabon _ Garri (Abubakar Rimi) Market and Singer Market, with the rest of the seized items comin from other markets and warehouses within the state capital
On fake drugs, he said that they are working hard to tame the menace that had been undoing youths and other members of the Kano community adding that with the relocation of the Luxury bus park from Sabon- Garri Area to the outskirts of the metropolitan area, the importers, especially Indian Hemp were now finding difficult to bring in these dangerous drugs.
Baffa however regretted that that these criminal had devised a new method of conveying their drugs by the use of the trucks belonging to Dangote and BUA , adding that they engage the drivers of these firms to convey their India Hemps to the state.
The NDLEA in the state have arrested a number of these trucks and I will implore to meet the new state director of the NDLEA. It is good to make the management of these companies know what their drivers are doing with their vehicles” he stated.