The Adamawa Forensic Laboratory is the first facility of its kind created by the EU-UN Spotlight Initiative and the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) to investigate allegations of gender-based violence.
Ulla Mueller, the UNFPA's country representative, made this statement on Thursday in Yola during a two-day session for stakeholders validating the forensic capacity assessment.
The UNFPA Humanitarian Coordinator and Head of the Fund's Maiduguri Sub-Office, Mr. Chris Sabum, spoke on behalf of Mueller, who stated that the forensic laboratory would hasten the process of getting justice for GBV victims.
In order to improve services in the field of access to justice for GBV cases, she urged stakeholders to identify the gaps and consider how to address the issues.
She claimed that Adamawa is being looked to by several states in Nigeria and nations in West and Central Africa as an example of how to improve the criminal justice system in order to address GBV challenges.
One of the goals of the stakeholders validation workshop, according to Dr. Kizzie Shako, an international forensic expert, is to determine the human resource capacity for forensic casework.
Shako stated that the workshop's other objectives were to evaluate the infrastructure capabilities offered by different stakeholders, spot their strengths and limitations, find openings for intervention within the current framework, and offer suggestions for thought.
According to her, "forensic medicine is the application of science in situations where there is violence in order to acquire evidence for presentation in court as an expert witness."
She consequently asked workshop attendees to recognise the importance of forensic science and medicine in controlling GBV in order to get convictions and save communities from future acts of violence.
Dr. Danladi Idrissa, the UNFPA's programme officer in Adamawa, claimed that over 4,000 rape cases had been reported in the state since 2017 but that only 10% of those instances had resulted in prosecution and major convictions.
The UNFPA's involvement in tackling the issue of GBV in the state was welcomed by Mrs. Saso Ali, Permanent Secretary of the Adamawa Ministry of Women Affairs.
She claimed that historically, GBV offenders have gotten away with it, but she thought that with the forensic lab, things will change since more convictions would be documented.
The workshop was attended by important parties such as the commissioner for women's affairs, the commandant of the NSCDC, the deputy commissioner of police for CID, permanent secretaries from the ministries of justice, health, and planning, civil society organisations, and FIDA.