NEW Survey Confirms Presence Of 30 GMO Foods In Nigeria

Stakeholders on the platforms of Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF) GMO-free Nigeria Alliance and the Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA) have rejected the unchecked admission of genetically modified crops into Nigeria.

This is even as the activists revealed that a recent market survey carried out in 10 Nigerian cities by HOMEF confirms the presence of over 30 imported products (most of which were cereals and vegetable oils) of genetic engineering in our market shelves

The stakeholders, who gave the rejection at a rally organised and attended by over 35 civil coalitions in Abuja, yesterday,  alleged that GMOs have found their way into the country either as illegally imported products or with approval of the National Biosafety Management Agency (NBMA).

Speaking at the rally,  director of HOMEF, Nnimmo Bassey, coordinator GMO, Free  Nigeria Alliance Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour,  Chairperson AFSA Mariann Bassey-Orovwuje and

Country Representative Bio-Integrity and Natural Food Awareness Initiative Jackie Iketuonye alleged that the “NBMA approves nearly every application brought to it without proper safety assessments, without due consideration of public opinion or the impact of proposed activities or of the concerns raised by the public. A notorious case of concern is the approval of importation of genetically modified (GM) maize by WACOT Ltd in December 2018 just a few weeks after the company had tried to smuggle the grains in.

“In 2018, the agency undertook a frenzy of permits approval and has granted permits to sundry of companies and to Research institutions. The permits were for the importation of genetically modified (GM) crops for purposes including field trial, feed processing and processing of edible oil.

“While we battle with use of GMOs, other technologies that have dire socio-economic and ecological consequences are finding their way to Africa.

“These include extreme genetic engineering such as synthetic biology (Synbio) and gene drives organisms (GDOs). Gene drives is a new gene-editing technology that makes it possible to have species-wide genetic engineering by the aggressive spreading of genetic changes through whole species.”