Reps urge agency to clear air on GMOs

The House of Representatives Committee on Environment and Habitat has urged the National Biosafety Management Agency (NBMA) to scale up its awareness and advocacy programme to allay the fears of Nigerians on Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs). The chairman of the committee, Obinna Chidoka, made the remark during an oversight visit to the agency recently, in […]

The House of Representatives Committee on Environment and Habitat has urged the National Biosafety Management Agency (NBMA) to scale up its awareness and advocacy programme to allay the fears of Nigerians on Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs).

The chairman of the committee, Obinna Chidoka, made the remark during an oversight visit to the agency recently, in Abuja, a statement from the agency said.

Chidoka said though NBMAis barely two years old, it has been able to demonstrate its potentials in safeguarding human health and the environment in the absence of adequate funding.

The chairman, who noted that the committee was at the agency mainly to interact with the management and get firsthand information on how it functions, urged it not to relent in the implementation of its mandate, saying that the House will give it all necessary support to ensure that its programmes and projects were facilitated.

In his remark, Director General of the agency, Dr. Rufus Ebegba, told the committee that NBMA had made some progress in the establishment of a GMO detection and analysis laboratory that will position it to test and GMOs within the shortest possible time.

He commended the committee’s visit and used the occasion to call for synergy between the National Assembly and the agency.