The President of the Niger Delta Integrated Farmers Association of Nigeria, Julius Openha-Wodah, has raised an alarm over the influx and widespread use of banned, toxic agro-chemicals in the country, warning that Nigeria has effectively been turned into a dumping ground by foreign pesticide manufacturers.

Openha-Wodah disclosed this on Wednesday while reacting to a recent public concern raised by former Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, who revealed that packaged orange juice purchased by his wife was tested and found to be cancerous.

Validating the former Vice President’s stance, the association leader stressed that the development highlights a major, unresolved public health crisis currently threatening millions of consumers across the nation.

“The former Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, is absolutely correct. There is a food safety and public health issue; there is a serious concern on pesticide residue,” Openha-Wodah stated.

He expressed deep regret that despite global bans on several dangerous inputs, weak border control and regulatory laxity have allowed banned substances to flood Nigerian agricultural markets.

According to him, “There are lots of chemicals that have been banned worldwide, but unfortunately, these agro-input producers see Nigeria as a dumping ground where nobody bothers to check anything. Most of our farmers might not know that there are a lot of chemicals that are banned, but they still find their ways into the country.”

Elaborating on the specific hazardous substances still circulating freely in local markets, Openha-Wodah cited highly toxic herbicides that pose severe lethal risks to human health.

“Chemicals like paraquat, which is completely banned because of its chemical composition, and glyphosate, which is also banned in some countries, are highly toxic to human lives, but they are still being sold in the Nigerian market,” he decried.

The agricultural chief further revealed an alarming practice within the food distribution chain, where traders apply lethal crop chemicals directly onto raw food products to artificially extend their shelf life.

“We also realised that most of the farmers and those in the distribution chain are using pesticides to preserve foods. In other words, we are taking in raw chemicals,” he warned.

Turning his attention to animal husbandry, Openha-Wodah noted that the meat and dairy sectors are equally exposed to unsafe chemical contamination due to unchecked administration of veterinary inputs.

“Let’s even talk about livestock; there, we have a lot of chemicals and antibiotics in this sector, and poor usage of these chemicals poses a risk to the consumers,” he concluded, calling on federal food safety agencies and agricultural regulators to immediately enforce strict market inspections and curb the importation of banned agro-chemicals. (Nigerian Tribune)