Governor Abdullahi Ganduje has declared wholesale trade and distribution of pharmaceutical commodities at the Sabon-Gari open market illegal.

Subsequently, he directed dealers to vacate the spot and other cluster plazas or risk forceful eviction and prosecution.

The directive is in addition to the two-week window given by the Pharmacists Council of Nigeria (PCN) to the dealers to relocate to new Coordinator Wholesale Centre (CWC) at Kano Economic City.

While commissioning the facility in the ancient commercial city, Ganduje explained that Kano has contended with high rate of psychotropic and adulterated prescribed drugs due to population density.

Minister of Health, Osagie Ehanire, lauded Kano for being the first to actualise the Federal Government’s guidelines on drug distribution 20 years after formation of the blueprint.

He praised the initiative as the only potent solution to the dangerous trade of pharmaceutical products in open markets that constitutes grave harm to public health.

Ehanire hinted that the current administration was collaborating to safeguard public health, while encouraging reenactment of CWC in Lagos, Abia and Anambra states to outlaw open drug markets.

Addressing a press conference earlier, PCN’s Registrar, Ibrahim Babashehu Ahmed, noted that the chaotic drug distribution system in some major markets has been a major factor affecting quality, safety and efficacy of medicines in the country.

Essentially, he argued that the unwholesome practice of open drug markets in places like Kano, Lagos, Abia and Anambra states has continued to expose medicines to harsh environment without storage facility.

He worried that act was also predisposing consumers to harms of wrong use of medicines, encouraging proliferation of unregistered premises and triggering social and security challenges.