Doctors of medicine protested the kidnapping of one of their colleagues, Dr. Austin Uwumagbe, on Tuesday in Lokoja, the capital of Kogi State.
Last week, Uwumagbe, the director of Victory Hospital-Annex in Ogaminana, Adavi Local Government Area, Kogi State, was kidnapped by gunmen thought to be kidnappers.
Reporters observed that physicians were not there to treat patients when visiting Kogi State Specialist Hospital Lokoja, Federal Teaching Hospital Lokoja, and various hospitals in the state capital.
Dr. Olusola Baoku, the Kogi State Chairman of the Nigeria Medical Association, observed that medical professionals had always been the target of criminal elements in the country while he was speaking to reporters about the protest by doctors.
He bemoaned the fact that over 48 doctors had been abducted nationwide in the previous two years.
Baoku lamented the notion that doctors should be kidnapped for ransom since they were extremely wealthy.
Since no one knows who will be abducted next, several of our members are frightened and restless. Going to work is no longer safe for people. You’ll discover that a doctor’s income is always going to be peanuts since they use it to pay off debts of all kinds. We should no longer be kidnapping doctors and holding them for ransom. We have nothing in our accounts,” Baoku lamented.