32 Medical Doctors In Kidnappers Den- NARD

32 medical doctors are currently in the captivity of kidnappers, the National Association of Resident Doctors, NARD, has revealed.

Doctor Abah Innocent, Chairman, Association of Resident Doctors, ARD, University of Abuja Teaching Hospital, UATH, made this known on Tuesday while speaking on Channels Television.

Abah said there’s no information on what has happened to the kidnapped doctors, whether they are dead or alive, saying the hope of re-uniting them with their families is becoming dimmer everyday.

He said “posterity will not be fair” to medical doctors if they failed to take any action to ensure their release, saying medical doctors have been targeted by kidnappers across the country for ransome.

For instance, bandits who kidnapped Dr Popoola are demanding N40 million ransombefore she can be set free.

Abah’s remark comes on the heels of a seven-day warning strike declared by NARD in view of the abduction of one of their colleagues, Dr Kudirat Popoola who has been in the den of her abductors for eight months.

NARD had had last week embarked on a nationwide protests to press home their demand for Dr Popoola to be released.

Dr Popoola, a registrar in the Department of Ophthalmology at the National Eye Centre, Kaduna State, was abducted alongside her husband on December 27, 2023.

While her husband was released in March, Popoola and her nephew remain in the custody of the kidnappers, a situation that has sparked widespread concern and outrage within the health sector in the country.

On Monday 26, 2024, the angry medical doctors put the federal government on notice of an indefinite strike if Dr Popoola is not released withing seven days.

Declaring the seven -day strike on August 25, NARD President Dr Dele Abdullahi said the strike will be total, with no emergency care services available for one week.

He said doctors could no longer stand by idly while one of  our own “remains in danger”.

“The continuous captivity of Dr Popoola is unacceptable, and we can no longer stand by idly while one of our own remains in danger,” Dr Abdullahi stated.

Meanwhile, checks by the magazine indicate that the strike action has severely impacted healthcare services nationwide, as many Nigerians who need urgent medical care groan under the abandonment of the doctors.