A Professor of Human Anatomy, Oluwole Busayo Akinola of the Department of Human Anatomy, College of Health Science, University of Ilorin, on Thursday called on Federal Government to establish a forensic DNA databases and forensic laboratories across the country to check the high rates of crimes in the nation.
The Unilorin Don made the call while delivering the 213 Inaugural Lecture titled ‘Human Anatomy: Beyond Flesh and Bones” held at the Institution’s Auditorium.
The Don noted that it is high time that Government at all levels considered the establishment of crime laboratories as a measure to curb the menace of crime in the society.
He emphasized that with the aid of forensic DNA profiling (DNA fingerprinting), it is easier to track and prosecute offenders, and by so doing enhance national security.
The professor added that graduates of the Anatomy degree programme are a source of skilled human resources that can be given short training to operate such forensic laboratories.
The Don, who had earlier said that human anatomy is much more than study of flesh and bones, stressed that modern anatomists actively contribute to emerging disciplines such as bioinformatics, computational biology, genomics, proteomics and forensic science.
According to him, “Anatomy continues to take the traditional lead as one of the foundation courses in the undergraduate curricula of medical and allied health professions. Therefore, sufficient provision must be made to ensure adequacy of material and human resources required for teaching and research in anatomical sciences.
“With continuous training and re-training and the availability of state of the art equipment, anatomists would always be in the frontier of promoting the health of the public through advanced research in virtually all fields of medical science and also through their involvement in undergraduate and postgraduate medical education”, he said.
Prof. Akinola, however, urged that Universities in the country to pursue the establishment of electron and confocal microscopy suites for teaching and research purposes, to re-position morphologists to deliver beyond flesh and bones.