Tuesday saw medical professionals in Kogi State go to the streets in Lokoja, the state’s capital, to demonstrate against the kidnapping of Dr. Austin Uwumagbe, one of their colleagues.
Uwumagbe, the Director of Victory Hospital-Annex in Ogaminana, in Adavi Local Government Area of Kogi State, was kidnapped by gunmen last week.
Our correspondent observed that there were no physicians present to treat patients when visiting Kogi State Specialist Hospital Lokoja, Federal Teaching Hospital Lokoja, and various hospitals in the state capital.
Speaking to our correspondent on the protest by medical doctors, the Kogi State Chairman, Nigeria Medical Association, Dr Olusola Baoku, noted that medical practitioners had always been the target of criminal elements in the country.
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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 gets salary, it will always remain peanuts since they have spent it in 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.
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