Outraged by the abductions of their colleague and the 20 medical students,
the Association of Resident Doctors (ARD) at Olabisi Onabanjo University Teaching Hospital in Sagamu, Ogun State, held a peaceful protest on Monday.
The doctors demanded the release of their colleague, Dr. Ganiyat Popoola, who was abducted in Kaduna State in December 2023.
They also called for the release of the 20 medical students from the University of Jos and Maiduguri who were kidnapped on Thursday, August 15, 2024, along the Otukpa-Otukpo-Enugu Road in Benue State.
Dr. Olusola Monehin, the association’s president, led a protest march within the hospital grounds, chanting slogans and demanding the unconditional and safe release of Popoola and her nephew, who have been in captivity for more than seven months.
Popoola was a registrar in the Department of Ophthalmology at the National Eye Centre, Kaduna, before her abduction alongside her husband and seven-year-old nephew, Persecondnews recalls.
However, despite her husband’s release in March, the doctor and her nephew remain in the custody of their kidnappers.
During the protest, the doctors held up banners and placards with messages such as ‘Federal Government, Bring Back Dr. Ganiyat Popoola’, ‘Immediate Release of Dr. Popoola Demanded’, and ‘Security Agencies, Help Free Dr. Popoola’, among others.
Monehin said: “All we are saying is that the Federal Government should deploy all the resources at their disposal to set free Dr. Ganiyat Popoola.
“This is a mother of five, for God’s sake. She even had a six-month-old baby at the time she was abducted.
“Here is a woman contributing her quota to qualitative health care delivery in the country, serving people with all her passion, and over seven months after her abduction, we have not seen her return together with her nephew.
“And just on Thursday, another 20 medical students of the University of Jos were waylaid and abducted in Benue.
“This goes to show that the insecurity challenge is not getting better. We are therefore calling on the appropriate authority to act fast.
“The security efforts should double up their efforts to get these Nigerians out of the gulag of these criminals.
“We are on our knees, begging the government to act fast and do all that is necessary to free Dr. Popoola and the 20 medical students.”
While reflecting on the ongoing doctors’ strike in the state over payment disparity, Monehin called on notable indigenes of the state to prevail on the governor, Dapo Abiodun, to accede to their demands.
He said: “This strike, though regrettable, is to help in delivering qualitative healthcare to the residents of the state, or how much can we do when the few doctors that remain in the government-owned health facilities are also moving out to other neighbouring states, Babcock University Hospital, among others, because of remuneration?
“What we are demanding is an upward review of our CONMESS salary, and this is something that we have been talking about since last year.
“We have other states like Lagos and others that have implemented it. We are saying that our earnings with doctors in federal government establishments and others must be the same.
“This is how we can retain the few hands that have not embraced “Japa syndrome,” a term we popularly use for people travelling abroad to seek greener pastures because of poor remuneration, poor welfare, and a stifling working environment.
“There is ongoing engagement with the government, but it has not been fruitful because they are talking about the minimum wage, but what we are demanding is separate; it is the upward review of our salary structure; it comes first before the minimum wage.”
Meanwhile, the immediate past state chairman of the Nigeria Medical Association (NMA), Dr. Kunle Ashimi, issued a directive on August 3 for doctors in the state to commence an indefinite strike in response to the state government’s failure to implement the CONMESS upward review, which has been met with indifference.
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