A Federal High Court in Lagos has adjourned till November 30, 2015 further proceedings in a suit filed by the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria against the Consumer Protection Council.
The PSN is challenging the authority of the CPC to compel its members to register the drugs being dispensed and distributed by them with the CPC.
The pharmacists are urging Justice Rita Ofili-Ajumogobia to declare that the CPC has no statutory power to demand, compel or issue any directive to them to register their drugs with the agency.
Their counsel, Mr. Olatunde Adejuyigbe (SAN), argued that there was nothing in the Consumer Protection Council Act 2005 that conferred on the agency the authority to issue directives on pharmacists in the country to register their drugs with the CPC.
According to Adejuyigbe, only the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, has the authority, by virtue of Section 5(f) of the NAFDAC Act, to compel the pharmacists to register their drugs. The lawyer described the demand being made on the pharmacists by the CPC as obnoxious, unreasonable and unjustifiable and urged the court to declare that it was an illegality.
The plaintiffs, who sued on behalf of themselves and other pharmacists in the country, are Olufemi Adebayo, Albert Alkali, Iyiola Gbolagade and Chinedu Nwankwo.
Joined in the suit as a co-defendant with the CPC, is the Attorney General of the Federation.
The plaintiffs’ lawyer said,”The plaintiffs state that they have made representations to the 1st defendant about the demand made on their members for the registration of products with the 1st defendant but the 1st defendant is adamant and has threatened to shut down any pharmacy operating in any part of Nigeria, which fails to comply with its directive.
“The plaintiffs aver that their members are not prepared to succumb to the threats, coercive and intimidating posture of the 1st defendant, all of which are aimed at compelling them to comply with the unlawful and obnoxious demands of the 1st defendant.”
The pharmacists are urging the court to make an order of perpetual injunction to restrain the CPC and its officers from making any demand on them to register their products or from harassing them in any manner in the practice of their profession.
By: Ramon Oladimeji
Punch News
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