Hundreds of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) on Wednesday storm the National Assembly to protest the permit granted proponents of the controversial Genetically Modified Organism (GMO) or Genetically Modified Foods (GMFs) in the country.
Genetically modified foods are produced from organisms that have had changes introduced into their DNA using the methods of genetic engineering.
The CSOs including Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC), Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF), Save Nigeria, Climate, Transformation and Energy Remediation Society (Climatters) and Women Environmental Programme (WEP) urged the National Assembly to outrightly ban the GMOs, stopped their field trails and transborder movement and ensure the labeling of the GM products if it has not been totally recalled.
The Director of HOMEF Nnimmo Bassey and Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour who led the protest said that the activities of the GMOs are being curtailed in United States, European and other countries and wondered why Nigeria is embracing what has been confirmed to be detrimental to Nigerians’ health.
“Six of the G8 countries including France, Germany, Japan, Italy and Russia have outrightly banned the cultivation of GMOs. Nineteen countries of the European Union (EU) have banned GMOs and 38 countries across the world have officially banned cultivation of GM crops as at October 2015.
“The National Assembly should urgently review the signed National Biosafety Act 2015 to address the deficiencies therein that put Nigeria at great risk on health, environmental degradation and other ills which the Act was meant to safeguard,” Bassey said.
Chairman, Senate Committee on Ecology and Climate Change Senator Bukar Abba Ibrahim and Senator Abu Ibrahim who addressed the protesters at the entrance of the National Assembly, assured that the federal lawmakers would look into the petition of the protesters and the sides of those supporting the GMOs and take appropriate action in the interest of Nigeria.
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