The Pharmacists Council of Nigeria (PCN) disciplinary tribunal convened on Sunday, six years after the council's last tribunal meeting.
Three pharmacists were charged with various counts of professional misconduct before the tribunal.
They include allegations of fraud and failure to remit proceeds from the sale of drugs in their possession to the manufacturers or importers, among other things.
Success John Onaji, Chigozie Chimaobi Sunday, and Chinedum Samuel Okwum are the names of the three.
The chairman of the governing council of PCN, Prof Ahmed Tijjani Mora, stated during the inauguration and session of the disciplinary tribunal that there was no tribunal sitting prior to his appointment because the council lacked a governing board.
He said the governing council approved the constitution of the membership of the disciplinary tribunal, as well as other standing and ad-hoc committees of the council, following President Muhammadu Buhari's inauguration in 2020.
However, he explained that due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which forced lockdowns for much of last year, the tribunal and other committees were unable to meet as planned.
“The tribunal can only meet to hear cases referred to it by the investigating panel,” he explained.
"At the same time as the tribunal, the investigating panel was reconstituted."
"From 2020 to the present, I am aware that the investigative panel has met at least twice."
"It became necessary to convene this first meeting to inaugurate the tribunal based on the foregoing, particularly the fact that the 6th governing council was dissolved in 2015, which was six years ago."
“The tribunal has not met in six years, which should not be the case because the PCN cannot claim that it does not have pharmacists who have broken the profession's code of conduct and ethics.”
The petition against the three pharmacists is based on them "defrauding their employers either by not remitting monies from pharmaceutical product sales, or by some going away with pharmaceutical products," he said.
"Pharmacists who have broken the code of ethics and the profession are arraigned in front of an investigative panel to answer questions arising from petitions from their employers or other parties who are supposed to benefit from their services as pharmacists," he added.
The PCN, according to Mora, is not a toothless bulldog, and pharmacists who violate the profession's code of ethics will be sanctioned.