PHARMACISTS in Lagos State are contemplating closing their retail outlets by 7 pm daily due to insecurity.
According to them, the decision is s fallout of the threat to the lives of some of their members as well as their businesses which they are subjected to when attending to customers beyond 7 pm.
The Chairman of the Lagos State branch of the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN), Mr Babayemi Oyekunle, dropped the hint in a letter dated 19th July 2024 and addressed to the Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Mr Adegoke Mustapha Fayoade, titled, “Improved Surveillance of Pharmacy Facilities in Lagos State”.
Last Monday, a retail outlet in Oko-Oba, Orile Agege axis was attacked by robbers around 10 pm, after robbing the outlet, they attempted to abduct the owner but irate youths of the area foiled the attempt.
Mr. Oyekunle, who recalled the numerous attacks on pharmacists and others directly connected to pharmacy practice, said that more than twenty pharmacists have been victims of armed robbery, kidnapping and hired killers and other men of the underworld in recent years across the country.
He urged Mr. Fayoade to emulate his predecessors including Assistant Inspector-General, Israel Ajao (Rtd.) and former Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Abubakar who when they held sway in Lagos State used to deploy men directly from the state headquarters to help enforce pharmacy and drug laws in the state.
“This clamour for the support of the monitoring and control procedures of the PCN in those dispensations reduced the number of unregistered pharmacy premises which were in several hundreds of thousands as well as helped to extinguish the flames of unlawful activities of operators in the Open Drug Markets in Balogun and Oniwaya areas of Agege and Bale Street in Ajegunle area.
“Improved monitoring and control will make it easy for the Police to consolidate its surveillance operations around registered pharmacy facilities in Lagos State as the number will be manageable,” the letter says.
According to Mr. Oyekunle, these security challenges and unfavourable work environment was the reason many pharmacists have left the country.
He said that records of the Pharmacy Council of Nigeria shows that out of the over 35,000 registered pharmacists in Nigeria, less than 14,000 are currently practicing in the country.
The letter says that the Ethics and Practice Committee of PSN, Lagos State branch, has evaluated the situation and decided that if community pharmacies are to operate beyond 7 pm, they may need to engage the services of private security firms as collaborative players, which will increase the cost of medicines to an already disillusioned public.
To prevent what could lead to skyrocketing prices of medicines, the PSN therefore appealed to the Commissioner of Police to immediately facilitate an improved surveillance of registered pharmacy facilities in Lagos State to encourage good pharmacy practice.
The PSN also wants the Police to facilitate an urgent dialogue with the leadership of the PSN, Lagos State branch and Pharmacy Council of Nigeria (PCN) to work out modalities to boost monitoring and control procedures in the sate like it used to be in previous dispensations.
Eighteen-Eleven Media