The federal government has expressed its desire to establish a Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA) databank with a view to deploying it in tracking criminal elements in the country.
According to PRNigeria, Geoffrey Onyeama, minister of foreign affairs, disclosed this in Abuja while speaking to journalists on the sidelines of the second regional security summit.
The minister also said that out of the two million internally displaced persons in Nigeria, about 6,000 children who are below five years have been separated from their parents, adding that such a databank would also help to track their parents.
“We have within the country nearly two million internally displaced persons, a real tragedy which we have to address,” he said.
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“We also have about 6, 000 children under the age of five who are separated from their parents and homes. We have to look at how to address that human catastrophe. What we are looking at is the use of DNA to try and match those children with parents. The DNA databank is really what we are looking at.
“And we could ultimately extend the databank to the whole country because we know that for a lot of countries, it is through their comprehensive DNA databank that they use in tracking terrorists and that is also going to help us in intelligence gathering.”
He added that the summit would also institute a post-conflict development programme, and would also put in place mechanisms that would ensure that the military gains in the northeast were consolidated through civil programmes.
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