Association of Community Pharmacists of Nigeria, Lagos chapter has raised an alarm over the amount of money charged them by the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control before helping them to destroy expired drugs.
Speaking at its Annual General Meeting held in Lagos on Wednesday, the association said that the decision by NAFDAC has put them in a double jeopardy, saying that paying money to destroy expired drugs, after losing money used to purchase the drugs, was nothing but cruelty.
The event, marked the expiration of the outgoing executives of the association, also saw members welcome onboard the new executives who will pilot the association’s affairs for the next three years.
The outgoing Chairman of the association, Pharmacist, Obideyi Olabanji, while speaking with our correspondent said talks are ongoing with NAFDAC to stop the alleged illegal charges.
“The one (payment) will did last time, was the first time we paid such money. But even at that, I remember I have to talk to an official in NAFDAC before the reduced what they actually wanted us to pay. I think they asked us to pay N80, 000 per truck and we have two trucks. At last, the only collected money for one of the trucks after we intervened.
“We asked our members… to contribute a token for that money we paid. It is not that the money is too much, but just as we understand, paying such money is a case of somebody suffering double jeopardy because those drugs that expired were procured with money. We lost the capital and the profit and that is why our members are complaining that they are not supposed to be paying NAFDAC to destroy the expired drugs,” Olabanji said.
Meanwhile, the new chairman of the association, Lawrence Ekhator has assured that “the new executives of the association will take the matter up from where the past executives stopped in order to ensure that all is well.”