Nigeria’s National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) has ordered its members to commence a 7-day warning strike to demand the release of their abducted colleague, Dr. Ganiyat Popoola, who had been in captivity for over eight months.
The President of the association, Dr. Dele Abdullahi, announced the strike late on Sunday after an emergency virtual meeting of the association’s National Executive Council (NEC).
According to him, the industrial action will be total as no emergency care services will be provided by the resident doctors in any public hospital nationwide during the strike.
The NARD President said: “The continuous captivity of Dr Popoola is unacceptable, and we can no longer stand by idly while one of our own remains in danger.”
Abdullahi pointed out that the warning strike was a last resort by the association after previous protests across tertiary hospitals failed to get their abducted colleague released by kidnappers.
It would be recalled that Popoola, who is a Registrar in the Department of Ophthalmology at the National Eye Centre in Kaduna, was kidnapped with her husband and nephew some months ago.
While her husband was released in March this year, Popoola and her nephew remained in the custody of their kidnappers, despite growing public concern about their well-being and clamour for government’s intensified efforts to get the duo released.
