The Federal Government has warned against the consumption of frozen chicken, saying it causes kidney and other diseases.
The Minister of State for Agriculture, Heineken Lokpobiri told State House correspondents that the warning was given Friday during a meeting Acting President Yemi Osinbajo held with the president of the Poultry Farmers’ Association of Nigeria Mr Ayoola Oduntan.
The minister noted that many Nigerians had got kidney diseases from frozen chicken consumption, saying "Most times, they use what they use to preserve dead bodies (to preserve frozen chicken) and it causes harm to the kidney."
The meeting was attended by the Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun; the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele and the Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Customs Service, Ahmed Ali.
Lokpobiri said the meeting specifically charged the Nigeria Customs Service to
improve its surveillance in order to stop importation of frozen chicken.
He said those hoarding maize were doing so at the own peril, as the government "will not buy. What we’ve is a programme that’ll deliberately grow more maize which will satisfy local and international markets."
The minister disclosed that Nigeria had demands from Algeria and other nations to grow over two million metric tones of maize.
Lokpobiri said though the government had partly compensated poultry farmers whose farms were destroyed because of avian flu, Osinbajo had directed the Ministries of Agriculture and Finance to sort out the outstanding of N1.7 billion.
Oduntan commended the Federal Government for addressing the issue of shortage of maize across the country.
