Friday, August 28, 2009

Doctors protest kidnappers' new strategies
From Kelvin Ebiri, Port Harcourt

OVER 300 medical doctors have embarked on a protest march to the Rivers State Government House, Port Harcourt, complaining about the incessant cases of kidnapping targeted at them.

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The chairman of the state branch of the Nigeria Medical Association, Mr. Dango Kalio, said they took to the streets primarily to draw attention of government and relevant security agencies to the security challenges doctors now face in the course of discharging their duties.

Kalio told The Guardian that doctors on night duties, mainly in private clinics, had become vulnerable to kidnappers who under the guise of being patients, kidnap unsuspecting doctors.

He said: "Recently, two men escorted a woman who pretended to be on the verge of giving birth, to one doctor Abasi Umoh's clinic. Assuming that the woman was really in pains, he tried to assist. The two men brought into the clinic two bags , which they claimed, were the woman's personal items . They opened the bags and brought out 2 AK-47. The doctor was later kidnapped."

He explained that if nothing was done urgently to address the ugly trend, medical doctors would stop working at night in order to avoid being taken hostage by marauding criminals.

The state NMA leader described the situation as pathetic and demanded that government beef up security in the state, particularly around the hospitals and private clinics, which, according to him, are places where unsuspecting doctors are most likely going to fall prey to kidnappers.

The doctors commenced their protest march from the state-owned Braithwaite Memorial Hospital to the Government House, where they were received by the Secretary to the State Government, Mr. Magnus Abe.

Abe, who decried the kidnapping of doctors, assured the protesters that government remained committed to the protection of life and property.

He warned that anyone caught in the act of kidnapping would be made to face the full wrath of the law, which is 10 years' imprisonment.