FG warns against smuggled poisonous brands

The Federal Government has called on Nigerians to be careful in purchasing foreign brands of rice in the country as some of the brands are

According to a report by Punch, on Thursday, December 7, 2017, the FG declared that all foreign brands of rice in the country at the moment were smuggled with some being poisonous.

According to the government, recent tests conducted by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development showed that most imported rice and poultry products were poisonous.

It also stated that the different varieties of rice currently consumed in Nigeria were smuggled based on submissions by the Consumer Protection Council.

The Minister of State for Agriculture and Rural Development, Senator Heineken Lokpobiri, noted that it was the duty of the government to protect citizens against any form of harm.

He stated, “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.

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“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.”

A December rice case study

Sometimes in December 2016, the town was agog with the importation of a brand of rice, which was widely referred to as plastic rice. The alleged importation had created panic among the citizenry before the Nigerian Customs and security operatives doused the tension.