Some experts with knowledge in food safety and nutrition have expressed deep concerns regarding the health implications of Genetically Modified Organism (GMO) foods.
They spoke in Abuja on Wednesday, July 10, during a media symposium to raise awareness of global and local concerns about GMO foods.
The symposium was jointly organised by the Centre for Food Safety and Agricultural Research (CEFSAR); Environmental Rights Action (Friends of the Earth), Alliance for Action on Pesticides in Nigeria (AAPN), Project Print, and Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF).
Executive Director, CEFSAR, Professor Qrissturberg Amua, lamented that the importation of GMOs in Nigeria without government regulations was affecting the hormone system of Nigerian citizens, with an attendant consequence of increased diabetes rate even in children.
He identified one of the health risks of GMOs as early memory decay, where young people in their 40s were losing memory and intelligence at an alarming rate.
Amua called on security agencies to interrogate, especially the various crop sciences that are brought from European Union (EU) countries and imposed on Nigerians to eat.
He stated: “Before today, an ailment like diabetes was known or taken to be a condition for the elderly, people who were advanced in age.
“Today, it has been proven from our research that these GMOs are promoting diabetes ailments in young children, teenagers, twelve-year-olds are going down with diabetes because these things are affecting the hormonal systems of people.
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“Also, young people who are not even fat are going down with hypertension. They will deceive you and say it is because you are sitting down in one place for too long or you are eating processed foods.
“The third one is early memory decay where young people in their 40s begin to lose their memories. The rate at which young people are losing memory is alarming.”
The coordinator of the Alliance for Action on Pesticides in Nigeria, Donald Ofoegbu, called for proper monitoring laws to checkmate the presence of GMO foods in Nigeria.
He said there is no framework to help Nigerians identify GMO foods in the market.