Members of the Nigerian Medical Association, mostly medical doctors have embarked on a peaceful demonstration against kidnap of their member’s wife.
The protest took the medical doctors round major streets in Calabar, Cross River State capital.
The Chairman of NMA, Cross River, Dr Agam Ayuk, lamented the spate of kidnapping in the State.
He said the protest was to demand for the release of the wife of their colleague, Mrs Christian Ekanem, a staff of the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital.
Ayuk said that from 2017 till date, no fewer than 15 medical doctors and their dependents have been kidnapped within the state.
He explained that following the increasing rate of kidnapping of doctors and their dependents in the state, the association after an Emergency General Meeting held on Jan. 8, 2018 took a standing resolution on kidnapping.
“The NMA in Cross River will henceforth withdraw all medical services without any notice anytime a Doctor or Dependents are taken captive in future. We are calling on President Buhari and the Inspector General of Police as a matter of urgency to declare a state of emergency on security in Cross River.
“We also call on the Federal Government to mobilise the needed man power and resources to help in curbing the rate of insecurity in the state. Security forces have the capacity but they cannot work with their hands, it is an open secret that they do not have all they need to do the work they are supposed to do.
“We call on Buhari, who is the Commander-in-Chief to mobilise the resources at the centre and also help the state”, he said adding that members of the association in the state had withdrawn all medical services until the wife of their colleague is released unconditionally.
“This 14 kilometre walk is to seek for support and also ask the government to do more in protecting lives and properties in the state. We are not safe anymore; we believe that the government can do more in using the necessary mercenaries to ensure that we have a safer Cross River.
“Cross River as a state used to be a place where people come to live and be at rest; we want it to go back to where it was. We all know that doctors are immigrating from the country, those of us left behind to serve the public cannot wait and be kidnapped one after the other to pay ransom.
“We are out here to tell the public that enough is enough. We call on Non Government Organisations and Civil Societies to join in the struggle for a safer Cross River”, he said.
Members of the association carried placards with inscriptions such as “End kidnapping in Calabar, make Cross River Safe again, NMA in Cross River demand unconditional and safe release of our doctor’s wife among others.
