By Our Correspondent
A group, the Global Prolife Alliance, has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to fire the board and management of the National Biosafety Management Agency (NBMA).
Chairman of the group, Philip Njemanze, made the call in Owerri, Imo state, on Tuesday, while addressing journalists.
Njemanze hinged the call for the sack of the leadership of the agency on the issuance of two permits for the introduction of genetically modified crops in the country.
Despite public outcry, the NBMA had issued permits for commercial release cotton, MON 15985, genetically modified for lepidopteran insect pest resistance and Confined Field Trial (CFT) of maize, NK603 and MON 89034 x NK603, genetically modified for insect resistance and herbicide tolerance.
The two permits, posted on the NBMA website, are signed by agency’s Director-General, Rufus Ebegba.
It was said to have been issued to Monsanto Africulture Nigeria Limited on May 1, 2016, which was a work-free day in the country.
Njemanze said the action was in total disregard for the safety concerns regarding GMO crops expressed by leading governments around the world.
He argued that some of the countries, who have rejected the technology, have had firsthand experience with genetically modified maize.
According to him, France, Germany, Poland, Italy, Luxemburg, Austria, Hungary and Greece have banned the same insect-resistant corn variety citing environmental concerns.
He said: “Maize is a wind-pollinated plant so could cause serious devastation to the environment, since wind that can transport GMO pollens or seeds would contaminate the entire environment.
“The recklessness in approval of use of pesticides and GMO crops in Nigeria led to dangerous contamination of food in Nigeria. These approvals were granted despite warnings from the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC).
“In August 2015, the European Food Safety Authority detected a 460 times above lethal limits of a very toxic and cancerogenic pesticide in food import from Nigeria.
“The levels detected ranged from concentrations of 0.03mg per kilogramme to 4.6mg/kg of dichlorvos pesticide, when the acceptable maximum residue limit is 0.01mg/kg.”
