Dr. Uche Ojinmah, the National President of the Nigerian Medical Association, has disclosed that they would embark on a national action if their abducted member in Cross River State was not returned in seven days.
The National President of the NMA made this known at a news conference on Saturday in Calabar, Cross River State.
Ojinmah disclosed some of the measures the association would take to demand the release of their abducted colleague in the state capital.
It would be recalled that Prof. Ekanem Ephraim, a Neurologist with the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital, was on July 13 abducted from her residence by armed men who pretended to be patients.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that, according to her family, the NMA in Cross River State, in the last 25 days, has not received any response or proof that the doctor is alive.
Ojinmah said the NMA decided to make it clear that they would not accept anything except the return of the kidnapped doctor.
He said: “We have had interactions with the governor and we have made it clear that if by the end of next week we do not get results, we will take a tougher stance because we have watched the maltreatment of medical practitioners in Cross River in the last few years.
“Doctors as a group are being targeted.
“That has to stop in Cross River.
“If it does not, 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.”
Ojinmah called on the government of Cross River State to take proactive measures to protect their important citizens, not only doctors.
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While appealing to the kidnappers to return the abducted neurologist to her family and association, he called on the state government to make it a priority to contain any attempt to de-market the state.
He added that they were not unmindful of the efforts of Governor Bassey Otu and security agencies, but Cross River State was becoming a recurring decimal in the issue of kidnapping, especially of doctors.
NAN reports that in the last five years in Cross River State, over 10 doctors have been kidnapped.