Health
NMA threatens nationwide strike, requests for Prof. Ekanem’s rescue from kidnappers
There are strong indications that the National Association of Resident Doctors may resume another nationwide strike with Cross River State as the epicentre.
This is as a result of the abduction a Neurologist, Prof Ephraim Ekanem, who was kidnapped at gunpoint on July 13, 2023.
Checks revealed that the may also include other medical personnel, according to the National President of the Nigerian Medical Association, (NMA), Dr. Uche Ojinmah, in an interview with journalists in Calabar.
He noted that a seven-day ultimatum, which would expire on Friday if she was not rescued alive stressing that armed men who abducted Prof Ekanem in her house in Calabar had pretended to be patients.
According to him, “We have had interactions with the state governor and we have made it clear that if by the end of next week we do not get a result, we will take tougher stands because we have watched the maltreatment of medical practitioners in Cross River in the last few years.
“If our member is not released by Friday, there will be a national action that will have Cross River at the epicentre.
“We may withdraw our members so that those people who like kidnapping will have to treat the people of Cross River themselves.”
He therefore called on the Cross River State Government to take proactive measures to protect their citizens and contain attempts to de-market the state even as he appealed to the kidnappers to return the abducted doctor to them.
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