Imported rice

The Federal Government on Thursday said a shipload of rice into recently donated to Nigeria to support Internationally Displaced Persons, IDPs in the North-Eas was discovered to be poisonous when subjected to test.

Heineken Lokpobiri, the Minister of State for Agriculture and Rural Development revealed this at at a stakeholders’ engagement programme on how to stop the importation and smuggling of frozen poultry and rice into the country,

The Minister noted that all foreign brands of rice in Nigeria at the moment were smuggled in and some of them were poisonous.

“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.

“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 also revealed that security operatives would start visiting their outlets to ensure that smuggled and illegally imported products were not sold to Nigerians.

He said Consumer Protection Council that it had not seen any ‘Form M’ for rice importation since the beginning of this year.