Colleagues threaten strike as abductors hold doctor for eight months

Members of the Association of Resident Doctors at the National Hospital in Abuja, on  Monday, held a peaceful protest to once again demand the rescue of their colleague, Dr  Ganiyat Popoola, who was kidnapped December last year.

A similar protest was staged in Ogun State by resident doctors at the Olabisi Onabanjo University Teaching Hospital, Sagamu.

Popoola, a registrar in the Department of Ophthalmology at the National Eye Centre, Kaduna State, was abducted on December 27, 2023, along with her husband, Nurudeen Popool, who is a Squadron leader, and her nephew, Folaranmi Abdul-Mugniy, who stays with them.

After several negotiations with the kidnappers, the husband was released on March 8, 2024, but the doctor and Abdul-Mugniy were not released.

It was also gathered that since the incident, the abductors had called severally at will and occasionally to allow some family members to speak with the captives, and they were spoken to last on Wednesday, July 24, 2024, to prove that the doctor and the nephew were still alive.

NARD had on July 30 given the Federal Government a two-week ultimatum to secure the doctor’s release  ”failure of which industrial harmony cannot be guaranteed.”

On Monday, resident doctors at the National Hospital in Abuja took to the premises with placards, bearing different inscriptions, such as ‘Free Dr Ganiyat Popoola, help bring Ganiyat home safely,’ ‘Rescue Dr Ganiyat now,’ ‘Please, help bring Dr Ganiyat home,’ ‘Injury to one is an injury to all,’ and ‘Doctors are crying, help us save her.’

Speaking with our correspondent, the ARD President at the hospital, Dr.  Lanre-Aremo Babajide, the doctors would embark on an indefinite strike on  August 26, 2024, if Popoola was not rescued.

Babajide implored the authorities to intensify their efforts to rescue Popoola,  adding that every second she remains in captivity is a second too long.

“Our demand is simple, we want the government to intervene and get our colleague, Dr Popoola, out of captivity. We are calling on the Federal  Government, the security chiefs, and the National Security Adviser to intervene and get her out.

“There are people trained in rescuing abducted captives, so they should act immediately, and if she’s not rescued by August  26, we will embark on an indefinite strike as directed by our national body, NARD.

“We are aware that there are government negotiators, we are not saying that it is the government that kidnapped her, but we know that there are  government negotiators, and they have been doing that, so we are calling on the government to intervene now.”

Similarly, resident doctors at the Olabisi Onabanjo University Teaching Hospital, Sagamu, held a peaceful protest, demanding the rescue of Dr Popoola and the 20 medical students from the University of Jos and the University of Maiduguri kidnapped along the Otukpa-Otukpo-Enugu Road, Benue State on Thursday.

The ARD members, led by their President, Dr Olusola Monehin, walked around the hospital premises, calling for the unconditional and safe return of Dr Popoola and her nephew nearly eight months after their abduction.

The doctors, during the protest, carried banners and placards bearing various messages such as “FG must help bring back Dr Ganiyat Popoola, “We demand the release of Dr Popoola now”, ‘’The security agencies should help free Dr Popoola”, among others to drive home their demand.

Speaking during the protest, Monehin said, “All we are saying is that the Federal Government should deploy all the resources at their disposal to set free Dr Ganiyat Popoola. This a mother of five for God’s sake. She even has a six-month-old baby as of the time she was abducted.

“Here is a woman contributing her quota to qualitative health care delivery in the country, serving people with all her passion and over seven months after her abduction, we have not seen her return together with her nephew.

“And just on Thursday, another 20 medical students of the University of Jos were waylaid and abducted in Benue. This goes to show that the insecurity challenge is not getting better. We are, therefore, calling on the appropriate authority to act fast.

“The security efforts should double up their efforts to get these Nigerians out of the gulag of these criminals. We are on our knees begging the government to act fast and do all that is necessary to free Dr Popoola and the 20 medical students.”