By Cheta Enyoghasi
A nationwide demonstration is going today by resident doctors under the umbrella of the Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) to emphasize their desire for the release of their colleague, Dr. Ganiyat Popoola, who was kidnapped in Kaduna State on December 27, 2023.
On December 27, 2023, Dr. Popoola, a nursing mother, was taken from the National Eye Centre in Kaduna, together with her husband and nephew, from their official quarters.
Doctors at the Federal Medical Centre (FMC) in Asaba, Delta State, staged a march around the hospital grounds while chanting songs of solidarity and pressing the government to act quickly to ensure their colleague’s release from the kidnappers.
Dr. Asore, the National Assistant Secretary of NARD and immediate past President of the FMC Asaba Chapter, stated that the national body had intensified efforts to obtain their colleague’s release, but to no effect.
“We have done everything possible to get Dr Ganiyat Popoola released. It has been promises upon promises by security agencies.
“We intended doing a nationwide protest but for the fragility of the country at the moment coming from the End Bad Governance protest, we decided to shelve it by asking our members at individual states to restrict the protest within their hospital premises,” he said.
Dr. Kenneth Okolie, the president of the FMC Asaba Chapter of the Association of Resident Doctors, has attacked the government’s treatment of medical professionals in the nation, claiming that political leaders had not given enough thought to ensuring the safety of healthcare workers.
According to him, the behavior is what gave rise to the Japa syndrome in the medical field.
He demanded that the Kaduna State and federal governments either secure Popoola’s release immediately or force them to halt operations until the necessary actions were taken.
Dr Silva Juliet, the Chapter’s Public Relations Officer, also spoke out, urging the media and well-meaning Nigerians to assist the Resident Doctors’ campaign to ensure that their colleague was released unharmed so that she may reunite with her family and colleagues.
In solidarity with the protesters at the hospital’s administrative complex, Dr Omo Ekeneam (CMAC), representing the MD, Dr Victor Osiatuma, addressed the Resident Doctors, assuring them that management would support and collaborate with them to advance the calls for Dr Ganiyat Popoola’s release.
It was said that the husband, whose health was deteriorating, was eventually released on March 7, 2024, following a series of discussions and the payment of about N60 million and food as ransom, while the wife and nephew remained in the bandits’ possession ever since.
Meanwhile, other people assumed that because the woman is a doctor, the abductors must have found her useful in providing medical care to the bandits and their victims.
