Association of Resident Doctors (ARD) Kaduna State chapter yesterday staged a peaceful protest to demand the unconditional release of their colleague Dr Ganiyat Popoola, who was abducted last year on December 27th, 2023, at her residence in Kaduna.
Dr. Popoola was kidnapped alongside her husband and nephew. Her husband was released after spending weeks in captivity, leaving the wife, who is a breastfeeding mother, still held captive.
Addressing journalists at the end of the peaceful protest, which took place within the premises of the National Eye Centre Kaduna, president ARD Kaduna Chapter, Dr. Muhammad Ibrahim Okpanaki said, if their request for prompt intervention and release of their colleague is not yielded to, they may have no option but to down tool to press home their demand.
The doctors turned out in large numbers and carried placards with various inscriptions such as “All we are saying, bring back Ganiyat, we want NSA, Governor Uba Sani to intervene in the release of our colleague”, among others.
The president lamented that the safety of doctors in Nigeria is under threat hence the reason for the brain drain and Japa syndrome .
Also speaking, the secretary of the Kaduna chapter of the Medical and Dental Consultants Association of Nigeria (MDCAN), Dr. Patricia Ella Idoko, also lamented the porous perimeter fence within the eye centre that needed reinforcement at both the entry and exit points while corroborating the call for her release.
She lamented how a breast feeding mother was separated from her baby for months, adding that information has it that her health is deteriorating. She said the need for relevant security and government agencies to intervene in securing her release unharmed is now imperative more than ever before.
In the same vein, the acting chief medical director (CMD) of the National Eye Centre where the victim works, Dr Aminatu Abdulrahman, disclosed that the management has reached out to security agencies on her abduction since it occurred and had done a series of follow-ups.
She said public hospitals are the hope of the masses and called on the Government to do whatever is required to protect workers in such hospitals and guarantee their safety at work.
