The Chief Pathologist of the Lagos State University Teaching
Hospital (LASUTH), John Obafunwa, on Saturday said the 99 bodies recovered
during last year’s protests against police brutality have not been properly
identified because they are yet to carry out DNA test on them.
Mr Obafunwa, a professor of forensic pathology, spoke while
testifying before the Lagos State Judicial Panel of Inquiry on Restitution for
Victims of SARS-related Abuses and Other Matters.
His evidence came just before the panel announced it was
adjourning indefinitely. No reason was stated for the decision.
He had, in July, submitted the autopsy reports on the bodies
– recovered from across the state between October 19 and 24, 2020 – to the
panel.
Resuming his testimony on Saturday, Mr Obafunwa said it was
worrisome that one of the recovered corpses was sutured and it made “certain
interpretation” difficult.
He said to identify the bodies, DNA samples had to be taken
during autopsy.
“The next stage will be to invite those who might have lost
somebody to come forward and provide DNA samples, what we refer to as reference
samples,” said Mr Obafunwa.
“Of course, you have to belong to a specific group to
qualify for that either both parents, siblings or children…
“We are then required to send the DNA sample and reference
sample to the DNA laboratory where the profiles will be determined and
comparisons made with one sample, that is the reference sample, to see who
matches who.”
So far, only 25 families have come forward to identify the
bodies of their loved ones, Mr Obafunwa said.
He added that although samples were collected from those who
had come forward, no DNA analysis had been done yet.
Explaining why it was so, Mr Obafunwa said the appropriate
authority has to be approached, “that this is how much it will cost to do this
thing, if we don’t get the go ahead we cannot do it.”
He noted that in the past, the state government always bore
the cost of the analysis.
“I’d advise that we
do this thing quickly, it’s close to a year,” said the pathologist.
“I have been bothered about certain things. Every now and
then, there is power failure and samples are in the freezer, if we are not
careful, decomposition, other growth, and I’m talking about post-mortem
samples, might affect viability.
“It is for this kind of reason that I will want to see the
analysis done.”
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