PCN, NAFDAC, NDLEA seal 4 pharmacies in Oyo over alleged illegal operations

By Suleiman Shehu
Ogbomoso, March 19, 2020 (NAN) The Joint Monitoring Team of Pharmaceutical Council of Nigeria (PCN), NAFDAC and NDLEA in Oyo State, on Thursday, sealed four pharmacies in Ogbomoso for allegedly selling fake and expired drugs.
Addressing newsmen after the operation, the PCN South-West Director, Mrs Yejide Oseni, said that the exercise would create awareness about the regulatory bodies controlling the pharmaceutical profession.
Oseni said that all the team also sealed the pharmacies because they were operating illegally.
”The pharmacies were not registered and those operating them are not professionals,” she said.
She said that some of the sealed pharmacies were selling controlled drugs, according to her, can only be handled by pharmacists.
“Some sell expired and fake drugs, and without NAFDAC number.
“People are not expected to just sell drugs without regulation, because it can lead to death rather than save lives,” Oseni said.
Oseni said that a pharmaceutical store must be manned by a pharmacist.
Mr Okorie Obiajuru, the NDLEA Principal Staff Officer, Operations and Intelligence, said that the aim of the operation was to sanitise the society of fake and expired drugs.
Obiajuru said that drugs were things that concerned human health, adding that if wrongly taken, they could result in death.
He called on Nigerians to do the right thing so as to safeguard the society.
The Assistant Chief Regulatory Officer, NAFDAC, Mrs Ayodele Morenikeji, said that further investigations would be carried out on the owners of the sealed pharmacies and that they would be charged to court, if the need arose.
One of the owners of the sealed pharmacy, who was arrested, told newsmen that he was not a pharmacist and did not have a licence to operate as one.
Aremu said that he had been operating the pharmacy for the past three years. (NAN)
SYS/EOB/WAS
Edited by Edith Bolokor and ‘Wale Sadeeq