The Director General of National Biosafety Management Agency (NBMA), Dr. Rufus E. Ebegba, has said the responsibility of the agency is to safeguard the health of Nigerians in the practice of modern biotechnology and the use of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs).
Dr. Ebegba state this at a colloquium organised by the Catholic secretariat, in conjunction with the Open Forum of Agricultural Biotechnology (OFAB), in Abuja.
He said: “The responsibility of NBMA is not to stop GMOs in Nigeria but to ensure it is safe and it does not pose any adverse effect to humans and the environment in accordance with the National Biosafety Management Act 2015.”
He noted that the world is being driven by science and technology and Nigeria cannot shy away from the deployment of safe science and technology to solve problems affecting the nation.
“Nigeria as a country has taken the necessary legal precautionary measures to ensure that the health of the citizens and environment is not jeopardised by the introduction of genetically modified organisms,’’ he said.