Home Print this page Email this page Small font sizeDefault font sizeIncrease font size
Users Online: 19942

 

Home About us Editorial board Search Ahead of print Current issue Archives Submit article Instructions Subscribe Advertise Contacts Login 
     
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Year : 2015  |  Volume : 56  |  Issue : 1  |  Page : 1-5

Forensic Investigation of mass disasters in Nigeria: A review


1 Department of Pathology and Forensic Medicine, Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, Ikeja, Lagos, Nigeria
2 Department of Pathology, University College Hospital, Ibadan, Nigeria
3 Department of Pathology, University of Abuja Teaching Hospital, Gwagwalada, Abuja, Nigeria
4 Department of Morbid Anatomy and Forensic Medicine, Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospital, Ile Ife, Nigeria

Correspondence Address:
Francis Adedayo Faduyile
Department of Pathology and Forensic Medicine, Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, Ikeja, Lagos
Nigeria
Login to access the Email id

Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None


DOI: 10.4103/0300-1652.149162

Rights and Permissions

This paper is to establish the present state of things in the country in terms of legal framework and the availability of personnel with a view to presenting an overview of proper mass disaster investigations. This is a retrospective review of mass disasters in Nigeria that occurred within the last 20 years. The study therefore reviews the state of the forensic investigation of the mass disasters as well as the efforts made to identify the victims of the disaster. The process of proper forensic investigation from the stage of evaluation of the scene and recovery process to the final identification of victims are presented to serve as a protocol for the country. The assessment of the present state of preparedness in Nigeria is also examined with a view to improving the practice to international standards. Data were retrieved from official documents from the aviation industry as well as Nigeria news reports. The standard protocols for disaster victim identification were retrieved from the guide released by the INTERPOL. The state of preparedness of the country and recommendations for improvement are presented. The Federal government and the states of the federation should without further delay put in place the process of reviewing the law of Coroner's system and provide the enabling environment for the proper forensic investigation. The training curriculum of the first responders should incorporate mass disaster investigations in order to produce efficient officers and personnel. A functional disaster victim identification (DVI) team is strongly advocated to incorporate different professionals involved in mass disaster management.


[FULL TEXT] [PDF]*
Print this article     Email this article
 Next article
 Previous article
 Table of Contents

 Similar in PUBMED
   Search Pubmed for
   Search in Google Scholar for
 Related articles
 Citation Manager
 Access Statistics
 Reader Comments
 Email Alert *
 Add to My List *
 * Requires registration (Free)
 

 Article Access Statistics
    Viewed9587    
    Printed197    
    Emailed1    
    PDF Downloaded218    
    Comments [Add]    
    Cited by others 7    

Recommend this journal