The former Director-General of the Nigeria Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Dr Dakuku Peterside, has advised biosafety professionals to keep an eye on the possibility of terrorists in the country resorting to bioterrorism to achieve their objectives.

Peterside said this while speaking as the chairman of the annual conference of the Nigeria Biological Safety Association (NIBSA) in Abuja on Thursday.

While appreciating the work being done by the association in building capacity for biosafety and biosecurity in medical science and laboratory practice, he noted that it was also important to look at other areas.

The former NIMASA boss stated that biotechnology has applications in agriculture, veterinary medicine, industries, warfare, and the environment, stressing that emphasis should not be on medical science alone.

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He commended Nigeria for being among the few African countries with regulatory framework for managing biosafety and biosecurity in addition to being part of a number of international conventions.

Peterside further urged practitioners to collaborate with regulatory agencies and society at large to ensure the safe use of biotechnology applications, saying biosafety by its nature requires teamwork.

“We as practitioners owe ourselves, stakeholders, and society as a whole the duty of preventing and mitigating hazards associated with our work in handling biological materials.

“This responsibility extends to enlightening and educating citizens on possible risk associated with biotechnology and handling of biological materials,” he stated.

The former NIMASA CEO equally advocated the deepening of biosafety in drug manufacturing, agriculture, and industrialisation to boost the economy, adding that the threat of the next pandemic was a reason to build capacity as practitioners.

The Star