Chidi Samuel || The Federal Government has confirmed that some of the imported rice currently on sale in the country are poisonous.
The Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development said on Thursday that tests conducted on the imported products showed that most imported rice and poultry products were poisonous, as the commodities had been stored for several months before being shipped to Nigeria and neighbouring countries.
The minister of state for Agriculture, Senator Heineken Lokpobiri made the disclosure while speaking in Abuja at a stakeholders’ engagement programme on how to stop the importation and smuggling of frozen poultry and rice into the country.
The Minister stated that it was the duty of the government to protect citizens against any form of harm.
Lokpobiri said, “For imported rice, we don’t know how long it had been in their (exporters) silos. Recently, one country decided to bring in a shipload of rice into Nigeria so that we can use it to support the IDPs (Internationally Displaced Persons) in the North-East, but when we subjected the rice to a test, we discovered that the rice was actually poisonous.
“This means that most imported rice have been in silos for 10 to 15 years and have no nutritional value. So what we have told them is that anybody who wants to support the IDPs or any other person in Nigeria should please use our local rice. The argument is that local rice is more expensive, but we say even if it means buying half bags, do it.
“It is better for us to eat a smaller quantity of nutritious rice than for us to take poisonous shiploads of rice. Also, we discovered that chemicals used for smuggled poultry products are the ones used for embalming corpses. So what we want Nigerians to know is that anybody who eats smuggled poultry products is actually embalming himself while still alive.”
The minister assured participants at the event that enforcement agencies of the Federal Government are working to ensure that the country gets rid of poisonous smuggled and illegally imported products.