NAN-AE-15
Security
By Ebere Agozie
Abuja, March 15, 2017 (NAN) Dr Rufus Ebegba, the Director General, Nigerian Biosafety Management Agency (NBMA) says the agency will continue to promote the security of biodiversity in Nigeria.
The NBMA D-G made the promise in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Thursday in Abuja.
Ebegba said that the agency was working very hard to ensure that biodiversity issues such as handling and the use of GMOs in the country would benefit Nigerians.
“The issue of biosafety also relates to security of biodiversity and human health in the context of the deployment of GMOs that are safe to the environment and human health,’’ he said.
He said that the agency had in a short time of its existence received various awards of excellence on its research and use of GMO.
He said that in his short stay as the Chief Executive Officer of the agency, various groups had also recognised his achievements.
The NBMA boss said that the recent award of excellence by the Centre for Security Search and Operation, an NGO was in recognition of such achievements.
He said that the award gave him a sense of humility and had spurred the agency to do more to protect the citizenry.
The mission of the agency is to promote the basic tenets of biosafety as enunciated in the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety.
It is also to enforce the NBMA Act of 2015 to ensure the safe application and use of products of modern biotechnology. (NAN)
EPA/LAB/GY
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Edited by Lydia Beshel/Grace Yussuf