The agency charged with protecting Nigerians from dangerous drugs is now accused of helping them spread.
Kano’s anti-drug task force alleged that officials of the Pharmacy Council of Nigeria (PCN) exploited regulatory processes to keep pregabalin, a controlled substance, in circulation across the state.
Muhuyi Magaji Rimingado, chairman of the Kano State Multi-Agency Task Force on Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking, made the claims on Saturday while addressing journalists.
He said preliminary investigations had uncovered a network of individuals using regulatory channels to facilitate the circulation of illicit drugs.
The trail, he alleged, begins with an import licence. According to Rimingado, UGO Lab Production Nigeria Limited was granted a licence to import pregabalin after the drug had already been designated a controlled substance.
He claimed the company’s owner then established a second firm, Seemark Pharmaceutical Nigeria Ltd, which investigators suspect was being used as a channel for unlawful distribution.
From there, he said, the drugs found their way into neighbourhoods.
Rimingado alleged that the PCN registered a residential property at No. 10 Apple Avenue, Nomansland, Kano, as a pharmaceutical outlet, contrary to regulatory and land-use provisions.
That registration, he argued, enabled controlled substances to be distributed directly into residential communities.
“The government agency mandated to protect lives and property cannot be seen as a culprit in endangering lives through fraudulent licensing of operators in residential areas,” he said.
