Stop People From Selling In Your Cars; FDA Boss Charges Drivers

The Central Regional Director of the Food and Drug Authority (FDA), Mr. Kingsley Kwame Nsiah Poku has charged drivers to desist from allowing people to sell drugs in their vehicles. According to him, the FDA has banned the act but some drivers still allow it to go on saying it is against the law and his outfit will not spare anyone found culpable. He offered the advise when the Central Regional Minister, Mr. Aquinas Tawiah Quansah met the regional Ghana Private Road Transport Union (GPRTU) in Cape Coast. Mr. Nsiah Poku noted that most of these drugs are not licensed, hence to escape the lenses of the FDA; the traders collaborate with some drivers to sell it to the public. �Most of these kidney and other diseases we are experiencing today are as a result of consumption of these drugs�, he revealed. He has therefore charged the general public to desist from purchasing such drugs and report to his outfit when they come across such incidents stressing that their identity will be protected in order not to attract any unwarranted attacks on them. The FDA boss hinted that his outfit is leaving no stone unturned in clamping down on people who flout the law concerning food and other consumable items in order to bring the current rate of cholera outbreak down. �We are checking everything from where the foods and drugs are being manufactured to the vehicles used in conveying them to the market because it has come to our notice that some people use cars used in picking people and dead bodies to mortuary to carry food stuff such as bread. This is very serious and unhygienic because you do not know what killed the person�, he lamented. He advised the public to desist from begging for culprits whose products are seized and destroyed by the FDA saying �we do this to protect your own interest�. The Central Regional Environmental and Sanitation Officer, Mr. Paul Nuchugah who educated the drivers on the symptoms and prevention of cholera also noted that drivers sometimes spread diseases as they resort to picking passengers and sometimes foodstuff immediately after picking a sick person to the hospital. He charged the leadership of the GPRTU to liaise with his outfit in sensitizing drivers about this to enable them have their cars washed or vaccinated before they can start picking passengers. The Central Regional Disease Control Officer, Mr. Charles Eshun revealed that six blood samples of suspected Ebola cases from the region have so far been sent to the Nugochi Center but were all negative. Meanwhile the Central Region has so far recorded more than thousand cases of cholera with more than 20 deaths and the figures keep rising.