BY OLASUNKANMI AKONI

Lagos State government, through its task force on counterfeit, fake drugs and unwholesome processed foods, weekend, sealed off at least 30 illegal patent medicine stores, in the Ajah-Lekki axis of the state.

The government warned members of the public on the inherent risks in the purchase and consumption of drugs from hawkers.

Special Adviser to the Governor on Public Health, Dr. Yewande Adeshina, who disclosed this, noted that the state government was not only worried by the dangers posed by illegal drug hawkers but also by nefarious activities of illegal operators of patent medicine and pharmaceutical stores in the state hence, the latest clampdown on illegal operators in Ajah-Lekki axis.

Adeshina said: “The shops were sealed off for offenses ranging from sales of drugs without licence to failure to relocate from a market area/adherence to the mandated distance between a patent medicine shop and market place as stipulated by the law and sales of counterfeit and fake drugs amongst others”.

She said: “The drug distribution system in Lagos would get worse if the activities of illegal drug operators are allowed to continue unchecked as more people will get harmed by their nefarious activities. The Victoria Island-Ajah-Lekki raid was necessitated by the excesses of illegal drug operators in that axis and the resolve of government to streamline activities of operators in the drug sector.”

Adeshina vowed that  government would do all it could to stop the inherent dangers associated with drugs from unauthorized outlets by undertaking periodic raids, adding that government recognized the menace of fake drugs and the attendant influence of open drug markets which play the dangerous role of reservoir of spurious and dangerous drugs.