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The Ondo State government has shut 10 medicine stores in the state capital, Akure, for allegedly being in unauthorised locations and selling fake and counterfeit drugs.
The Ondo State Joint Task Force on Fake and Counterfeit Drugs clamped down on the medicine stores at Ayede-Ogbese and Shasha markets on Friday morning.
The Chairman of the agency, Mr. Olugbenga Lasekan, a pharmacist, who led the team, lamented what he described as the recalcitrant attitude of most patent medicine vendors in the areas visited, noting that “they open premises without recourse to rules of practice.”
He stated that according to the rules laid down by the Pharmacist Council of Nigeria(PCN), no medicine outlet should be opened without consulting the PCN for approval. He added that premises should not be sited at filling stations, markets and motor parks and containers should not be used as shops.
He said: “Shops that open without following laid down rules and are not licensed are illegal, while drugs without NAFDAC registration are fake.
“By the rules of practice, patent medicine vendors have list of drugs they are permitted to sell, which does not include antibiotics, injections and controlled drugs.
“People are not allowed to hawk drugs because the drugs are supposed to be stored under certain temperatures which the practice of hawking violates, thus making the drugs unhealthy for human consumption.”
He stressed that that the state has zero tolerance for fake, adulterated and unwholesome products as well as illegal premises, adding that the state will not rest on its oars until the it gets rid of defaulters.
Lasekan warned that the government will not hesitate to prosecute “recalcitrant vendors and association leaders who aid and abet illegality.”
He advised vendors to obtain licences from PCN, to avoid harassment and embarrassment.