Samuel Bello, Abuja
A non-governmental organisation, the Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF), an environmental advocacy organisation for food sovereignty has called for a full repeal of the country’s biosafety law and a ban on Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs).
Speaking at a one-day media training in Abuja, Group Director, Nnimmo Bassey, said gaps with regards to access to information, public consultation, liability and redress, labelling and conflict of interest in the National Biosafety Management Agency (NBMA) Act 2015 needed to be closed.
He further called for an investigation of the process by which the National Biosafety Management Agency (NBMA) issues out permits for dealings with GMOs.
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“GMOs with more extreme variants known as Gene Drives are coming on stream. These target whole populations and involve gene editing. They pose special and unique dangers to Nigeria and Africa.
“One of the dangers is that our regulators promoting architectures keeps wide open doors to untested technologies.
“We reiterate our call for a repeal of the act and a ban on GMOs. Nigerians should not be used as pawns and as guinea pigs in a commercial gambit to open the country to toxic technologies in furtherance of blatant commercial interests’’, said Bassey.