Stakeholders call for ban on GMOs, demand nullification of all permits

Environmental experts including, researchers, farmers and Civil Society Organisations, CSOs, and medical practitioners have called on the Federal Government, FG, to place a ban on Genetically Modified Organisms, GMOs, following their health, environmental and economic hazards.
They also urged the FG to nullify all the permits earlier granted for the distribution of the GMOs which could be products brought in as packaged processed foods saying that such permits were not backed by adequate and certified risk assessment.
This was contained in a statement by Kome Odhomor, Media Communications Lead, Health of Mother Earth Foundation, HOMEF, at the end of a nationwide rally against GMOs.
The stakeholders also urged the Nigerian government to support and promote Agroecology as the viable alternative for food sovereignty and climate resilience in the country.
Nnimmo Bassey, Executive Director of HOMEF said Nigeria does not need GMOs to address food insecurity. He insisted that the design of those crops does not support local economic growth but promotes dependency on corporate seed supply.
Bassey also decried farmers were not able to replant the GM seeds after harvest due to declining yields regretting how they are being compelled to continuously purchase the seeds every new season from corporate entities