The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) and the Pharmacy Council of Nigeria (PCN) have urged marketers operating open drug markets in Lagos, Onitsha and Aba should be ready to move into the new Coordinators Wholesale Centres (CWCs) in the respective cities as soon as such facilities are built.
NAFDAC Director General, Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye and the PCN Registrar, Ibrahim Baba Shehu Ahmed, gave the directive during a media briefing which was held in Lagos yesterday.
The new directive to the open drug marketers to move whenever the CWC in their state is ready followed a landmark judgement made by Justice Simon Amobeda in Kano Federal High Court on February 16, 2024, who ordered the open drug marketers in Kano to relocate to Dangwauro CWC, Zaria Road, Kano.
Adeyeye said the order to the Kano marketers to relocate is in line with the PCN Act that regulates the practice sites and the practitioners, and with NAFDAC mandate of regulating and controlling the distribution, sale and use of drugs to ensure that the quality, safety and its efficacy are maintained.
Recall that a total of 1,370 wholesale medicine outlets and packing stores in Kano were sealed for operating open drug markets.
The owners of these outlets were advised from Monday, February 19, 2024 to report to the offices of NAFDAC and PCN at the CWC in Dangwauro area of Kano to arrange for the relocation of their businesses to the newly completed CWC.
