The Defence Headquarters (DHQ)  in Abuja has inaugurated an Identification Centre (DNA) for the storage of personnel specimen to aid in the recognition of military personnel when the need arises.
The centre, which is located in the Mogadishu Cantonment, is the first of its kind in West Africa.
Inaugurating the centre, the Minister of Health, Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu, said that the event was a giant stride in furtherance of President Goodluck Jonathan’s Transformation Agenda in the health sector.
He said the event also marked a significant milestone in the ongoing efforts of the Armed Forces to balance its pursuit of professionalism with emphasis on human capital development.
Chukwu said that the application of DNA technology has led to the development of a global approach to medical preparedness in major incident management and support.
He said DNA technology had proven to be a valuable investigative tool to improve military identification capabilities.
“Accordingly, armed forces worldwide are keying into this trend.
“It is heart warming to note that the Nigerian Armed Forces are also in the forefront of this lofty achievement.
“The attendant destruction of modern warfare and the imperative to bury fallen heroes in marked graves call for the most effective and technologically sophisticated approach.
“Just as it is necessary to identify members of armed forces for administrative purposes or identify casualties before burial, so it is in civilian air crashes and terrorists attack leading to mass civilian casualty situation,” Chukwu said.
He said that part of the problem in situations of civilian casualties was giving the bodies back to the families and for documentation purposes.
Chukwu said there was need to collaborate with the armed forces not only for routine purposes but also during disasters.
“Now that the armed forces is going into high tech molecular diagnosis, it will be important in the context of the recent challenges of Ebola outbreak to extend this facility to other diagnostic facilities,” the minister said.
Retired Lt.-Gen. Aliyu Gusau, Minister of Defence, described the establishment of the centre as a significant milestone in the military’s effort in ascertaining the true identity of personnel.
Gusau said that the centre would also help in restoring the dignity of the fallen heroes even in death.
“The ability to correctly identify our deceased personnel in all circumstances is a responsibility which we owe to them and their families.
“It is in doing that, they could be appropriately recognised and honoured in accordance with their religious belief which is the wishes of the bereaved families and the will of the deceased.
“The centre is also essential for the living personnel in establishing the true paternity of civilians and other relationship when the need arises,” he said.
Gusau said that the centre would also save the Federal Government and families both in time and resources of sending samples abroad for DNA test.
Earlier, the Chief of Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshal Alex Badeh, said that the inauguration of the centre was in line with his vision to enhance effective coordination of the armed forces.
Badeh said that his vision for coordinated armed forces was to meet the security aspirations of united democracy.
He said that the military had made significant efforts in promoting world peace through participation in peace support and many of the personnel had paid the supreme price.
“However, on a few occasions, where multiple fatalities were recorded and individual corpses could not be identified, mass burial were resorted to.
“Such mass burials deny such heroes the privilege of being buried properly, while robbing the bereaved families the honour and satisfaction of seeing their loved ones given befitting burials,” Badeh said. (NAN)

Military inaugurates DNA centre for storage of personnel data