The Nigerian Medical
Association (NMA) has called for forensic identification of victims of explosion at Nyanya motor park in Abuja which killed 75 persons and injured many others.
The association made the call in a press statement made available to newsmen in Eket, Akwa Ibom, and signed by its president Dr Osahon Enabulele.
The statement said the Federal Government should use all available human and material resources to institute a full scale forensic investigation into Nyanya explosion.
“We call on the federal government and the Federal Capital Territory authorities to use all available human and material resources which abound in the country.
“The resources should be used to institute a full scale forensic investigation into last Monday’s deadly bomb blast at the Nyanya bus park’’, it said.
The association expressed shock over the monumental loss of lives and injuries recorded in the explosion.
“The NMA condoles with the families of those who lost their lives and sympathises with the families of those who sustained injuries following the bomb blast’’, it said.
The statement said that the association was highly worried over the state of insecurity in the country.
It called for more imaginative ways of contending with the security challenges through effective border and community policing and the use of intelligence gathering technologies.
The association decried lack of centrally coordinated operational procedure between medical personnel and law enforcement agents “which had led to scramble for corpses by relatives of victims.
“It is a shame that after 100 years of nationhood, Nigeria is yet to evolve, adapt and adopt standard operational procedures.
“There are procedures in handling bodies of victims of mass disasters in line with international best practices’’, the statement said.
The association demanded that appropriate machinery be put in place to discover the identity of the corpses through DNA analysis.
“We insist that globally accepted modalities of Disaster Victim Identification (DVI) and documentation be immediately put in place.
“The modalities would aid further ballistic investigation, national population statistics, property inheritance as well as insurance compensation issues.
“We strongly believe that this is possible especially following the successful manner in which the DANA plane crash victims were handled’’, it said.
The association pledged its support to mobilise pathologists to work as soon as the enabling environment and logistics were provided by government.
It sympathised with widows, children and other relatives of disaster victims
L-R: Senator Helen Esuene, Prof. Jerry Gana and wife Lucy, Groom, James, and bride Jessy, Governor Godswill Akpabio of Akwa Ibom State, at the traditional marriage of son of Prof. Gana in Uyo, last Saturday.
