Lagos, DNA Centre and Justice Administration
We must give kudos to Niji Kazeem, SAN, Honourable Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Lagos State, for being the ‘catalyst’ for the establishment of the Lagos State DNA and Forensic Centre, Broad Street/Odunlami Street, Lagos (‘DNA Centre’) in 2017. Even though the DNA Centre is still work in progress, as different facilities are still to be installed there, like a Ballistics and Firearms Section, its establishment is more than a step in the right direction. It is the first of its kind in Nigeria, “a deep vision to use science to transform the administration of justice, not just in Nigeria, but beyond our shores”.
I remember some years back, there was this ridiculous saga that was featured on Newsline, Frank Olize’s show on NTA, which aired every Sunday night (‘Sunday-Sunday tonic’), where two women, Mama probably in her sixties or seventies, and a younger lady, were claiming to be the mother of a child. There was no DNA testing in Nigeria at the time, so their samples had to be sent abroad for testing, and it took several months, for the results to come back. I can’t remember who turned out to be the real mother of the child, whether the younger lady or someone else, but, it certainly was not Mama. She had lied that, the baby was a miracle baby, whom she had given birth to. If not for the technological breakthrough that was able to resolve this controversy, there may still have been doubts about the maternity of that child to date, especially since many Nigerians are quick to believe in miracles and the supernatural. Today, depending on the workload at the DNA Centre, you can get your results in two weeks.
Last Friday, I was invited to join the team of the Honourable Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Ekiti State, Olawale Fapohunda, on a study visit to the DNA Crime Centre. Finally, I got to see some of the things which I had seen on the Crime Channel on DSTV. One of the examination rooms we were shown during our tour of the facility, had darkened windows. A duvet from a crime scene, was being examined for evidence. We were given a special pair of goggles to wear, and the lights in the room were switched off. We were able to see various white secretions on the duvet, which were not visible to the naked eye. We were told that, the secretions could may be semen or urine, which would be used to create DNA profiles of those who had been in contact with the duvet/were at the crime scene.
Definition of DNA DNA or Deoxyribonucleic Acid, in very simple terms, is “a complex molecule that contains all the information necessary to build and maintain an organism. All living things have DNA within their cells.... whenever organisms reproduce, a portion of their DNA is passed along to their offspring”.
Some Uses of DNA Profiling: Identification of Accident Victims A person’s DNA is unique to them, and is used to establish whether an individual is related to another by blood. I remember one of the plane crashes, that occurred some years ago. An acquaintance of mine, who lost his sister in the incident, told me that they had to wait for several weeks to get her remains, because with the aid of DNA, they used the bones collected from the accident site, matched with samples from family members, to identify victims.
Probate The Director of the DNA Centre, Dr Richard Somiari, told us that Nigerians have started to make use of their facility, in cases of Probate and sharing of deceased’s estates, to establish who the rightful beneficiaries are.
Paternity Test Dr Somiari gave us an extremely interesting lecture on their set up and functions. He also gave us a tour of the facility. It turns out that the ‘paternity test’, is one of the most popular tests they conduct. I couldn’t help but laugh, when one of the ladies who is responsible for giving couples the paternity results, told me that the facility has Policemen attached to it, who are usually in the vicinity when the paternity results are presented to couples, in case the results don’t go down well, and the recipients get violent. Apparently, a good percentage of those who do the paternity test, turn out not to be the fathers of their children!
Crime Detection We are all aware that, thorough investigation has never been a strong point of the Nigeria Police. Instead, the Force is infamous for torturing people into making confessional statements, so much so that, the Anti-Torture Act had to be passed in 2017, to curtail this primitive, inhumane, unlawful and unconstitutional method of investigation. Help has come! Now, the Nigeria Police Crime Scene Investigators, can be well trained at the DNA Centre, on how not to contaminate, and how to process a crime scene, in order to collect evidence which will be tested at the DNA Centre, to be able to assist in the apprehension of criminals, especially in cases involving sexual offences and homicides. Dr Somiari showed us the part of the building, that has been designated as the training area.
Where you have a suspect in a crime, a sample of the person’s DNA can be taken to compare with those collected from the crime scene, to either eliminate a person as a suspect or establish the person’s guilt, especially in cases of violent crimes like rape and murder, where blood, semen, or even skin (where there may have been a violent struggle between the victim and the perpetrator, resulting in the skin of the latter maybe being embedded in the nails of the victim) samples can be retrieved. A cooperative suspect, may willingly provide a DNA sample, by allowing the sample collector to simply swipe a swab, which is similar to a long q-tip, in his/her inner cheek. If the suspect refuses, the Police can obtain a court order to collect the DNA sample.
Using DNA profiles to solve crimes, has brought revolutionary results. Cases that have been ‘cold’ for 30 years, that is, have remained unsolved for 30 years, have been solved when samples which were taken from crime scenes and preserved all those years ago, before the advent of technology, are now tested and used to generate DNA profiles. It makes the case much easier if the suspect is a habitual offender. Though in the USA, the laws differ from State to State, I believe everybody who has been convicted of a crime has their profile stored in the ‘Combined DNA Index System’ (CODIS), the national database created and maintained by the FBI. When profiles are generated from old samples, they are simply uploaded, to see if they will get a hit/match on CODIS. If there is a hit, the rest is history. Dr Somiari believes that, Nigeria can have her own version of CODIS.
In cases where the DNA profile generated, is that of a person who may never have been arrested or whose profile is not on record, the Police have more work to do. They have to interrogate those who were interrogated before, especially those who were listed as suspects or persons of interest at the time, possibly taking DNA samples from the old suspects, to try to get a match.
Mr. X I watched a real life story of a black American man, Mr. X, who was wrongly convicted and given a life sentence, for rap- ing and killing a white lady. He had already spent 15 years or so in prison. Mr. X had been convicted, on the strength of an eye witness’ testimony. The witness had identified him, as the person she saw escaping from the crime scene. He had always maintained his innocence. With the advent of DNA technology, Mr X wrote to one of the NGO Projects, engaged in looking into cases where there may have been a wrongful conviction, before the advent of DNA technology. Mr. X had begged them to take up his case, take his DNA sample, and compare it with those that had been found at the crime scene, because there was no such testing at the time of his conviction, and he knew that he was nowhere near the crime scene, nor was he the perpetrator. It was discovered that, Mr. X’s DNA did not match the one found at the crime scene; it was matched to someone else, who was already in prison for another violent crime. The eye witness then admitted that, she had not been 100% sure that it was Mr. X she saw running from the crime scene, though he looked like the person she had seen. Turns out that, the only common denominator was that, it was also a black man who had committed the crime, and Mr. X was just unfortunate, because he happened to live in the same apartment block as the victim, with his white girlfriend.
The use of DNA and other forms of modern technology, can be as powerful as an eye witness account, or as in Mr X’s case, even more powerful. Therefore, it is encouraging that Lagos State has decided take administration of justice to the next level, by making use of science in crime detection, and other related matters. The DNA Centre is one of the few laboratories in the world, that has been accredited under the most recent 2017 ISO standards in forensic DNA analysis and serology.
Even if it is not on as grand a scale as Lagos, it is my hope that other States will follow suit. Using this type of modern technology, will help solve crimes quicker and possibly, with less difficulty. Who knows? It may also help, to decongest the Prisons a little bit. Well done, Lagos State.
“DR SOMIARI GAVE US AN EXTREMELY INTERESTING LECTURE ON THEIR SET UP AND FUNCTIONS. HE ALSO GAVE US A TOUR OF THE FACILITY. IT TURNS OUT THAT, THE ‘PATERNITY TEST’, IS ONE OF THE MOST POPULAR TESTS THEY CONDUCT”