North highest consumer of hard, fake drugs – Arewa youths

…say enemies deploy drug abuse as
political weapons to smear the north …allege wicked traders still
infiltrating North with counterfeit
drugs despite red flags … demand closure of open drug
markets in 19 northern states By Soni Daniel, Northern Region Editor In a rare confession, the Coalition of Northern
Groups, yesterday, raised the alarm that the
North had become the highest consumer of
hard and substandard drugs capable of
causing untold social, economic and political
crisis to the region

The startling revelation is contained in a mail
released by the Spokesman for the CNG,
Abdul-Azeez Suleiman, entitled: “Persistent
proliferation of Northern Pharmaceutical
Markets with Drugs of Abuse” and made
available to Saturday Vanguard. Although the group did not name those
responsible for flooding the North with hard
and fake drugs, the Spokesman, accused the
perpetrators of using hard and counterfeit
drugs as a political weapon to smear the
North. The CNG lamented that the persistent flooding
of the region with fake and hard drugs had
continued despite its demand as contained in
its ‘Kaduna Declaration’ that certain
aspects of drug distribution in the north be
reviewed by the respective states. For this reason, the CNG called for immediate
closure of all open drug markets in the North,
the empanelling of task forces to deal with
the dealers of fake and hard drugs and the
revocation of the land titles of the
masterminds across the region. The group said, “Worried by the recent
disturbing revelation by the Senate of the
Federal Republic that not less than three
million bottles of codeine are consumed daily
in Kano alone, the Coalition of Northern
Groups CNG, wishes to remind the 19 northern governors of its demand for the
total closure of all the open drug markets
operating in Northern Nigeria. “The expectation was that by now, at least
the few governors with the welfare of their
people at heart would have commenced the
closure of these dangerous drug markets and
the immediate implementation of the
National Drug Distribution Guidelines (NDDG) as contained in the 2nd Edition 2012
developed by the Federal Ministry of Health
which did not include the Co-ordinated
Wholesale Centres (CWC) which is the
guideline that provides a distribution channel
in consonance with the national drug policy and the implementation of which is
empowered by the Constitution of the Federal
Republic of Nigeria. “It is also expected that all the states in
northern Nigeria should by now have
commenced the establishment and
strengthening of the state task force on
counterfeit, fake drugs and unwholesome
processed foods, revoking all land titles where drugs are being sold and reviewing
the laws to provide stiff penalties for
offenders. This should be followed up by the
implementation of health insurance scheme
at all levels and making the drugs available
at the health centres in northern Nigeria to
help eliminate nefarious activities. “CNG is worried that months after it gave
this as one of the conditions for the review of
some aspects of the Kaduna Declaration, the
infiltration of northern pharmaceutical
markets with fake, substandard, adulterated
and hard drugs by some wicked traders persists. “Recall that CNG had pointed out that the
existence of open drug markets, like that of
Sabon Gari, in Kano, provides a convenient
outlet for the sales of drugs of abuse, stolen
drugs, and drugs banned internationally or
donated to countries or procured by the government for citizens but stolen (case of
Azithromycin donated to Niger Republic). “Over N4 billion worth of fake, substandard
and drugs of abuse was confiscated and
destroyed by regulatory agencies in Kano
within three years from April, 2012 to April,
2015.This was from only one state out of the
States in Northern Nigeria. “We are concerned that sales of fake,
substandard and drugs of abuse have health,
political, economic and security implications
as follows and should be discontinued without
further delay. “We are worried that while the north is the
largest consumer of such products, its
economic involvement is less than five
percent of the total market value with the
rest hijacked and monopolized by people
from the other sections of the country,” CNG said.