From Abdullahi Jalaludeen (Kano)
Kano State Task Force Committee on Fake, Counterfeit Drugs and Unwholesome Foods says it has seized and destroyed fake and counterfeit drugs worth N6 billion in the past nine years.
The Chairman of the Committee, Gali Sule, disclosed this during an interactive session with the Kano state chapter of the Nigeria Union of Journalists.
Pharmacist Gali Sule explained that since the inauguration of the committee in 2012, it has destroyed fake and counterfeit drugs in the state on about 20 different occasions.
He attributed the success to the hard work and commitment of its members and other related agencies established to fight the menace.
The Chairman maintained that the state’s ranking on the consumption of fake and substandard drugs has dropped from number one to six in a recent rating.
He stressed that it has helped in sanitising the society, the nation and many African Countries from engaging in sales of fake and counterfeit drugs.
“If you sanitise Kano of fake drugs, you are sanitising many countries in the region of Africa of substandard drugs because countries like Niger, Chad, even Sudan among others buy their drugs from Kano”.
Pharmacist Gali Sule further explained that before the inauguration of the committee, the government was spending a lot of money on malaria, yet the sicknesses persists because fake and counterfeit Malaria drugs normally brings about drug resistance.
He said that most drug hawkers on the streets of Kano have been driven away because of the activities of the committee, which has NAFDAC, NDLEA, security agencies, KAROTA, vigilance groups among others as members
Sule added that a site is being built, where all drug marketers, especially wholesalers in Kano would be relocated.