Kwankwaso destroys N350m adulterated drugs

[Mirror]

About 18 truck-load of expired and adulterated drugs worth N350 million were yesterday evening destroyed in Kano State by Governor Rabi'u Musa Kwankwaso.

Shortly after setting the consignment ablaze at Mariri, in the outskirts of Kano city, Governor Kwankwaso told journalists that the action was a pointer to his administration's determination to end the sale and consumption of harmful drugs and medical consumables.

He said: "The government will not succumb to pressure to reverse its decision to close the obnoxious Kano drug market. The state made the resolution not to impede anybody's business, but initiated the decision to close the market in the collective interest of the people.

"The government will not sit and watch a few individuals selling bad drugs and related items just to acquire wealth. No responsible government will allow its citizens to patronise inferior or contaminated medicines, provisions and products."

Stressing that the fight against the sale and consumption of illegal, counterfeit and expired drugs is not that of the government, community leaders and security agencies alone, Kwankwaso urged individuals and groups to work support law enforcement agencies in the crusade against the menace.

The governor said: "Those people selling bad drugs are those that clothe their children well, feed them well and send them to schools aboard, while they give our own children drugs to take and become nuisances to the society."

Earlier, the state Commissioner for Health, Dr. Abubukar Labaran Yusuf, explained that some of the items were confiscated by the Task Force on Counterfeit Drugs in an unoccupied building on Abeokuta Road in Sabon Gari area of Kano, while the rest were seized in several locations within the city.

National Mirror