NMA Calls For Forensic Investigation Of Victims Of Nyanya Blast

The Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) today called for forensic identification of victims of Monday’s bomb blast in Nyanya, in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

In a press statement signed by Osahon Enabulele, its president, NMA expressed shock over the monumental loss of lives as well as the severe injuries.   It called on the federal government and the FCT to use all available human and material resources in the country to institute a full scale forensic investigation.

It also expressed worry about the consistent deterioration of security in the country, despite several statements from government that it is “on top of the matter”.

Commenting on reports that there is an on-going scramble for bodies by relatives of the victims due to lack of a uniform and centrally coordinated operational procedure between medical authorities and the law enforcement agents, the NMA described as a national shame the fact that after 100 years of nationhood, Nigeria was yet to evolve and standardize, adapt and adopt standard operational procedures in handling bodies of victims of mass disasters in line with international best practices.

“We bemoan the fate of several widows and children and other relatives of disaster victims whose deaths were not properly and legally documented,” the statement said.

“The Association therefore demands that appropriate machinery be put on ground to discover the identity of the bodies of these innocent Nigerians through DNA analysis. The Association insists that globally accepted modalities of Disaster Victim Identification (DVI) and documentation which would aid further ballistic investigation, national population statistics, kin property inheritance as well as insurance compensation issues, be immediately put in place.”

The group said that such victim identification is doable, drawing attention to the remarkably successful manner in which the DANA plane crash victims were handled, and pledging its strong support to mobilize pathologists to work as soon as the enabling environment and logistics were provided by the government.

The NMA also called for more imaginative ways of contending with the security challenges in the country, especially through effective border and community policing and the use of intelligence gathering technologies.