Lagos Forensic Centre and the Wheel of Justice
Everyday society undergoes different transformation. Nature has either endowed or placed demand on human beings to procreate. As humanity progresses in growth, internal and external influences play a major role in the character formation of people.
Development in most societies have come of age with so much security challenges where men cleverly manoeuvre their way out of criminal acts to evade justice. In countries like Nigeria, many have been convicted of offences they knew nothing about while real criminals walk free, and sometimes tall. In an attempt to consolidate their acts, criminals initiate and fund security support group to exploit the weakness of the system, with the intention of taking undue advantage of its deficiencies.
Historically, various approaches have been deployed towards fishing out criminals in different climes. In contemporary time, the search for error free, time tested and objective based crime investigation led to the discovery of Forensic Science as an application of broad range of sciences to answer questions of interest to a legal system. Whether in relation to a crime or a civil action, forensic science utilises natural broad range of sub-sciences that exploit natural techniques to get relevant criminal and legal evidence to ensure justice is not subverted.
Forensic DNA analysis as developed by Sir Alec Jeffery was first used in 1985 to determine the person responsible for a murder of a 15-year- old girl, Lynda Mann who was raped to death in Narborough, Leicestershire, a small English town. Semen sample obtained from the victim was eventually used by Jeffery to establish a strong case against the criminal. In Nigeria, effective investigation of crime has always been a complicated issue. Till date, high profile murder cases involving high ranking personalities such as Pa Alfred Rewane, Chief Bola Ige, Mr Funsho Williams and many others remain unresolved largely due to the burden of proof.
It is in order to ensure that perpetrators of evil are identified and appropriately punished that the Lagos State government established a first state- owned forensic centre. The centre, driven by world class technology in forensic inquest, is expected to bring perpetrators of crime to book while ensuring quick justice. The facility is capable of resolving all forms of crimes, paternity issues and others through modern technique of investigation which is now the trend across the world. It has the capacity to provide police, prosecutors, legal representatives and observers with crime scene processing; serological screening for blood and semen; DNA analysis of bone, teeth, hair, maternal and paternal DNA analysis. Other services include expert witness and case handling service; maternal and paternal ancestry DNA analysis; cold case file review and mass disaster human identification.
The Lagos DNA Centre, which conforms to international standard is the first of its kind in the country and the decision to allow members of the public, other states and neighbouring countries to have access to the use of the centre in order to meet their DNA needs, makes it more profound. Fighting crime in a cosmopolitan state like Lagos is herculean if one factors in the huge population and their background, the defects in our judicial system and the attendant lack of scientific methods to apprehend criminals. With the forensic centre now in place, the fight against crime in Lagos has, no doubt, received a boost, and perpetrators of heinous crimes such as rape, assassination, armed robbery, etc., can easily be apprehended and brought to book even years after committing the crime.