The President Muhammadu Buhari's administration has been accused of importing a genetically modified rice which is injurious to human health into the country.
The Federal Government has denied that it had imported and flooded the nation’s markets with Genetically Modified rice, Vanguard reports.
Reports have it that the consumption of such brand of rice could militate against the human health and open doors to cancerous infections.
The Director-General of the National Biosafety Management Agency (NBMA), Dr Rufus Ebegba made the position of government known at a news conference on Wednesday in Abuja.
Recall that an online news platform had alleged that the Federal Government through a firm had flooded the nation’s market with poisonous GM rice. Ebegba said that there was no iota of truth in the report, noting that no GM rice had either been imported or released officially into the country.
According to him, `no GMO rice has been commercially released anywhere in the world. He said that the Federal Government had banned the importation of rice and there was no indication that the ban had been lifted. Ebegba described the online report as a falsehood and imagination of the writer, who “probably used a fake name.’’
He added that the report was intended to cause unnecessary panic and called on Nigerians to disregard it.