Two people were said to have lost their lives, while some others suffered varying degrees of injury, following a bloody clash between drugs dealers and Security Agencies, including the State Police Force, Kano State Transport Road Agency (KAROTA), Civil Defence and Hisbah in the commercial city of Kano.
The security agencies were said to have reportedly stormed the Sabon Gari market, Kano and impounded large quantities of drugs and hospital equipment been sold in the market.
Reacting to the development, the Caretaker Chairman of the Nigeria Association of Patent and Drug Dealers Association (NAPDDA), Nnamdi Dozie, who made the disclosure, said the unarmed drug dealers confronted the Security operatives, who invaded the market on the claims that the dealers were involved in the sale of fake and unregistered drugs in the market.
While describing the allegations as stage-managed, so as to tarnish the image of the drug dealers and their businesses, Dozie however called on the Kano State Government, including the Emirate Council to intervene, so as to amicably resolve the dispute.
According to Dozie, numerous efforts by the Drug dealers to table their petition before the authorities proved futile, explaining that the combined security operatives cordoned the market, preventing sellers and buyers from gaining entry into the market.
Also, Dozie alleged that the police, alongside other security agencies, not only barricaded the market but prevented buyers and sellers from gaining entry into and out of the market.
Apart from that, he alleged that the Security operatives also harassed them with the butt of their guns, lamenting that in the ensuing scuffle, two people lost their lives.
”There is no way that they can fight and defeat the government but we are only pleading for the appropriate authorities to tamper justice with mercy. We are not selling banned drugs, as claimed by the security operatives. We are selling genuine drugs.”
Meanwhile, the drug and hospital equipment dealers in the market have expressed dismay over the ill-treatment meted on them by security agencies.
”What really happened is that, as soon as you gain entry into the market, with your goods, the security agencies will impound and seize the goods. Sometimes, they will not care to screen the goods one is carrying, whether it is among banned goods or not. They seize products, ranging from cotton wool to powder, as well as allegedly collect money from sellers.”
”For me, I do not deal on drugs but only sell disposable and hospital equipment. The bottom line is that all the security operatives don’t care.’ We have agencies that can sanitize the market, such as NAFDAC, NDLEA but certainly not the police, who invaded the market vicinity when people started arguing and started shooting into the air. The expended about 24 cartridges, at the end of which two people died.”
Contacted, the Police Command spokesman, DSP Musa Magaji Majiya, said investigations have commenced to unravel the cause of the clash between security agents and the traders.