The Senate has pledged to toughen laws and give severe punishments to anyone using deadly chemicals in food production, following a report exposing rampant toxins in Nigeria’s daily meals.Adopting findings from its Joint Committees on Health and Agriculture yesterday, lawmakers decried the crisis as “slow poison” threatening national survival.A July 17, 2025, probe uncovered horrors: fruit ripeners forcing bananas with welding chemical calcium carbide (releasing arsenic and phosphine); butchers boiling meat with paracetamol; grain sellers spraying Sniper insecticide; cassava soaked in bleach; palm oil dyed with cancer-linked Sudan IV; and abattoirs singeing hides with burning tyres.Supermarket fruits were coated in EU-banned Morpholine, risking liver and kidney failure.The report tied these to surging diseases: 14,000 cholera cases and 378 deaths in 2025, plus 119 Lassa fever fatalities. WHO says over one million annual food-borne illnesses cost Nigeria $3.6 billion.Senators moved to amend Criminal Code Sections 243–245 for stiffer fines and jail terms, while ordering the Ministries of Agriculture, NAQS, FCCPC, and NiCFOST to launch immediate crackdowns and public awareness drives.In related enforcement, FCCPC sealed five Kano textile warehouses in Sharada estate for selling underweight fabrics. CEO Tunji Bello, via Director Boladale Adeyinka, confirmed the raid followed intelligence and verified consumer fraud, vowing to safeguard fair trade.
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