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Sunday, March 23, 2014

My Long Absence: The Tragedy Newer Stops!

This is my first post this year. It's been quite a long time and I apologize to readers of this blog for my long absence. I was deeply involved in the organization of the first pan-African Forensic Conference of the African Society of Forensic Medicine (ASFM) to take place in West Africa and hosted in Nigeria at Abuja. Abuja 2014 took a lot of time and efforts of planning to put together and any available extra time I had was practically frozen by the event.
Abuja 2014 eventually held and it was a successful event with hundreds of participants from across Africa and beyond and great workshops with internationally renowned forensic experts. The theme of the conference was: Management of Bodies of Victims following Disasters. One of the workshops addressed the issue of management of fatalities in armed conflicts and catastrophes and the setting captured the situation of many African countries including Nigeria, where the Boko Haram carnage has so much reduced the value of life with the horror of bestiality exhibited by some humans against fellow humans. What are we doing to manage bodies of  these victims? What happens after scores or hundreds of deaths have been announced in the press? Who are the individuals behind the figures? What efforts have we made to identify them; accord the victims the dignity they deserve and afford their families and loved ones to achieve any closure? Is it not a double injustice to deprive these hapless victims of their right to life by mindless bigots and also deny them the right to their dignity and identity by lack of government action in instituting appropriate disaster victim identification (DVI). The ASFM conference in Abuja underscored the importance of DVI in upholding human rights, enabling affected individuals and communities achieve closure and at the same time provide investigators with forensic evidence in understanding such disasters and prevent future occurrences. What are we doing about DVI in Nigeria, in particular and Africa, in general?

Some of my readers may have seen the gory headline on ThisDay Newspaper of Sunday 23 March 2014: Death Stalks Ibadan Compound as Bodies are Discovered. It is a tragedy of our time, in our peculiar environment, that accountability is in short supply. We are watching to see how the government of Oyo State will respond to this present issue. We are hoping that, for the very first time in recent memory, there will be a proper Coroner's Investigation in this case. Meanwhile, there is an existing Coroner's Law of Oyo state, albeit with some archaic provisions out of touch with contemporary realities but the principles thereof  still applicable. The victims of this dastardly act deserve to be properly identified, their remains handed to to their families and loved ones for burial in accordance with their culture and forensic investigation with a Coroner's Inquest be held to unravel ramifications of this shocking discovery and bring justice to the victims. Competent members of the African Society of Forensic Medicine (ASFM) will be ready to assist Oyo State in the medico-legal investigation. We cannot afford to accept that life has become so devalued that even animals tend to attract higher premium in our environment. Collectively, we must put a stop to this malady.

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