By Joshua Egbodo
Abuja
House of Representatives yesterday resolved to invite the nation’s Consumer Protection Council (CPC) over its inability to ensure effective implementation of government’s ban on imported frozen poultry products.
This is even as the Nigeria Customs Service has been urged to be more vigilant in monitoring the nation’s borders to ensure that such banned products “do not find their ways into Nigeria, as well a call on relevant government agencies to draw up policies to protect local poultry farmers from the activities of fraudulent middlemen, which in turn encourage smuggling of banned products.”
Owing to widespread concerns on the side effects of the banned frozen poultry products, the House also urged relevant agencies such as the National Orientation Agency (NOA), the National Agency fir Food and Drugs Administration and Control (NAFDAC), and the Ministry of information to champion campaigns at exposing the dangers of consuming these imported poultry products.
The resolution emanated from a motion as a “call for enforcement of the ban on importation, smuggling, trading and consumption of foreign poultry products in Nigeria,” sponsored by Hon. Abubakar Amuda-Kannike.
Moving the motion of the floor, the lawmaker noted that these poultry products constitute serious health hazards such as renal and liver related diseases, adding that high levels of formalin and heavy metals which are toxic to vital organs of the body are used in the preservation of these products.
“The economic impact to the local poultry industry is enormous, given that Nigerians lose about one million jobs and about N399.4 billion annually to importation and smuggling of frozen birds, the loss is estimated to be in the region of over N600 billion annually.
“While there is a proclaimed federal government ban on frozen poultry products the nation’s porous borders still create avenues for smuggling of these hazardous products into the country.”
