The Lagos State House of Assembly on Monday passed a bill to establish the Lagos State Deoxyribo-Nucleic Acid and Forensic Centre to support criminal investigations, law enforcement, the preservation of evidence for the judicial system and other connected purposes.
The Chief Press Secretary to the Speaker of the state House of Assembly, Eromosele Ebhomele, disclosed this in a statement, adding that the bill was passed by the House after it scaled the third reading at plenary with all lawmakers in attendance giving their approval.
The report on the bill had been adopted at an earlier sitting presided over by the Speaker, Mudashiru Obasa.
The statement read in part, “Part of the objectives of the centre includes providing for the use and regulation of DNA-based technology in Lagos State, in order to carry out profiling or analysis. The centre will also carry out other forensic disciplines including, toxicology, drug chemistry, fingerprint examination, firearms examination, among others.
“The bill also allows the centre to decode family ties and relationships of individuals in order to establish an identity as well as the identification of abandoned or disputed children and other related issues. The centre is expected to recommend methods for optimum use of DNA techniques and technologies for the administration of justice.”
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