By Aderemi Bamgbose
A forensic expert, Mrs Oluwatoyin Yerokun, says governments at all levels need to invest more in digital forensic analysis.
Yerokun, also a Principal Lecturer, Federal College of Education (Technical), Asaba, in Delta, said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Okitipupa, Ondo.
She said such investment would help to establish scientific and technological facts that would improve national security adding that insufficient digital forensic analysis had posed security threats.
She recalled the experience of the explosion that occurred on March 28 in Akure, which shook the foundation of many buildings and caused panic among residents of Ilu-Abo and Eleyowo, who were unable to ascertain the cause of explosion.
Yerokun noted that residents attributed various unsubstantiated claims as the cause of the explosion, as none of them was able to come to terms with the difficult and life threatening situation, as a result of lack of digital forensic analysis.
According to her, threats and callous acts of terrorism are the first thoughts and fears of residents who came out when it was safe for them to see things for themselves.
“Even the media were confused on what caused the explosion as there was no specific and concrete information until few days later.
“The government detectives said it was a load of explosives in transit to a quarry that exploded, while the Police Bomb Squad said it was bombs taken through Akure by terrorists that exploded.
“Researchers, scientists, physicists, geologist and every practitioner in the physical sciences, trooped to the crash site to test their scholarly capabilities, yet there were conflicting results and reports with more confusing hypothesis.
“A group of computer scientists with special training in Expert Systems (artificial intelligence) proposed the deployment of robots (Intelligent systems), to do digital review and forensic investigations of the site.
“One thing that is clearly missing from these reports was digital forensic analysis, with detailed specifications of the components and samples from the crash site,” Yerokun said.
She added that digital forensics would have reviewed on site residue and data, such as depth of crater, shock magnitude, smells, air particles, burns and soil samples, which would form immediate, accurate and preliminary results in less than a day.
The expert, however, said that digital forensic analysis was a very important aspect which the governments and security agencies must beam it’s searchlight with commensurable funding to ensure security of lives and property of citizens. (NAN)