Doctors Protest As Colleague Spends Sixth Day In Kidnappers’ Den

Medical Doctors in Kogi State on Tuesday took to the streets in Lokoja, the Kogi State capital, to protest the kidnap of one of their colleagues, Dr Austin Uwumagbe. Punch report.

Gunmen suspected to be kidnappers had last week abducted Uwumagbe, the Director of Victory Hospital-Annex at Ogaminana, in Adavi Local Government Area of Kogi State.

According to the Punch’s reporter, who visited Kogi State Specialist Hospital Lokoja, Federal Teaching Hospital, Lokoja, and some hospitals within the state capital, noticed that doctors were not on the ground to attend to patients.

Speaking to our correspondent on the protest by medical doctors, the Kogi State Chairman, of of Nigeria Medical Association, Dr. Olusola Baoku, noted that medical practitioners had always been the target of criminal elements in the country.

He lamented that over 48 doctors had been kidnapped in the last two years across the country.

Baoku bemoaned the impression that medical doctors were very rich and should be subjected to kidnapping for ransom.

“Some of our members are agitated and restless because nobody knows who will be kidnapped next. People are no longer safe to go to work.

“You will find out that when a doctor a salary, it will always remain peanuts since they have spent it settling different debts. They should stop kidnapping doctors for ransom because we are very poor. Our accounts are empty,” Baoku lamented.

The NMA Chairman, however, explained that the kidnappers had reached out to the family members and were demanding ransom.
PUNCH