Based on an investigative research project by Aminu Adamu
When crimes are committed in Nigeria, justice often begins and ends not in laboratories but in interrogation rooms. It is here that confessions substitute for evidence, suspects become culprits before trial, and the science meant to anchor justice remains largely absent. As violent crime spreads across the country, Nigeria’s policing system continues to operate within a forensic vacuum, one that has far-reaching consequences for human rights, accountability and public trust.
This investigation, drawn from an in-depth research project by Aminu Adamu, interrogates why forensic science remains marginal within Nigeria’s criminal justice system, how this failure shapes policing outcomes, and what it ultimately means for a society grappling with rising insecurity.
Nigeria is living through one of the most complex crime waves in its contemporary history. Armed robbery, kidnapping, homicide, ritual killings, sexual violence, cybercrime and large-scale financial fraud have become routine features of public life. From major cities to rural communities, fear has become normalised. Yet while crime has grown in scale and sophistication, the methods used to investigate it remain stubbornly archaic.
A field study conducted among police officers and forensic-related personnel at the Nigeria Police Force headquarters in Abuja reveals a striking consensus. A significant majority of respondents acknowledged that forensic investigation is rarely deployed in practice. More than two-thirds described the extent of forensic science usage as low, while only a negligible fraction believed it was applied at a very high level. This dissonance between crime complexity and investigative capacity lies at the heart of Nigeria’s justice crisis.
At the centre of this failure is policing without science. The criminal justice system rests on three pillars: the police, the courts and the correctional institutions. Of these, the police carry the greatest responsibility, because without credible investigation, prosecution collapses before it begins. Forensic science exists precisely to remove guesswork from justice. In functional systems, fingerprints, DNA, ballistics, toxicology and digital evidence provide objective links between suspects, victims and crime scenes.
In Nigeria, however, forensic science remains peripheral. The country’s most established forensic laboratory, located in Oshodi, Lagos, was set up more than three decades ago and focuses largely on pathology and human anatomy. Other critical forensic functions such as fingerprint analysis, ballistic matching and crime-scene processing are scattered across police units and separate agencies. There is no fully integrated national forensic framework, no unified database, and no enforceable standard governing evidence handling.
The consequences of this fragmentation are severe. Evidence is often contaminated before it reaches a laboratory, if it reaches one at all. Crime scenes are inadequately secured. Chain-of-custody procedures are weak. By the time cases reach court, investigators are left relying on witness statements and confessions that are easily challenged and frequently discredited.
In this vacuum, confessions have become the cornerstone of criminal investigations. Human rights organisations have long documented patterns of forced confessions, prolonged detention without evidence and torture during interrogations. High-profile assassinations fade into obscurity without resolution. Ordinary suspects are arrested on suspicion alone and held for years while investigations stagnate.
The research confirms what civil society groups have long argued. While most respondents agreed that forensic science is essential to effective crime detection, an overwhelming majority admitted that the tools available to the police are inadequate. Even where certain forensic technologies exist on paper, they are deployed inconsistently and often without trained personnel. Many officers assigned to investigative duties receive no specialised forensic training, leaving them ill-equipped to process modern crime scenes.
These failures are not accidental. They are rooted in structural weaknesses that have persisted for decades. Chronic underfunding limits equipment acquisition and maintenance. A shortage of forensic experts leaves existing facilities overstretched. Obsolete technology hampers accuracy and speed. Corruption diverts resources and undermines institutional integrity. Political interference further compromises independence, ensuring that forensic processes remain embedded within bureaucratic hierarchies rather than insulated from them.
Unlike jurisdictions where forensic institutes operate independently to preserve objectivity, Nigeria’s forensic infrastructure remains deeply entangled within police command structures. This arrangement weakens credibility and exposes evidence handling to manipulation, whether subtle or overt.
The societal cost of this failure is immense. Crime does not occur in isolation; it is shaped by poverty, unemployment, weak governance and social dislocation. But crime becomes truly corrosive when the state lacks the capacity to respond effectively. Drawing on structural functionalist theory, Aminu Adamu’s project situates policing as a stabilising institution within society. When that institution fails, dysfunction spreads. Citizens lose faith in the law, communities resort to self-help, and vigilantism fills the void left by absent justice.
Victims suffer twice—first from the crime itself, and then from a system incapable of delivering closure. Families endure years of uncertainty as cases drag through the courts. Correctional centres fill with detainees awaiting trial, many of whom have never been forensically linked to the crimes they are accused of committing.
Notably, the study also captures a rarely heard perspective: that of police officers themselves. Contrary to popular belief, resistance to forensic reform is not widespread within the ranks. Most respondents rated police efficiency as no better than average, while a significant proportion described it as outright inefficient. Many expressed support for forensic reform, improved funding, specialised training and independent oversight. What is lacking, they suggested, is not awareness but political will.
Nigeria now stands at a crossroads. Evidence, by its nature, is stubborn. It does not bend to power, influence or expediency. A justice system that ignores facts ultimately erodes its own legitimacy. Until forensic science moves from the margins to the centre of policing, Nigeria will continue to fight twenty-first-century crime with pre-modern tools.
In that gap between suspicion and proof, justice continues to bleed.
