Judex Okoro, Calabar and Gyang Bere, Jos
The Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), Cross River State Chapter has declared an indefinite strike to protest the kidnap of one of their colleagues, Dr. Vivien Otu.
Mrs Otu, senior registrar in the Department of Paediatrics, University of Calabar Teaching Hospital (UCTH) was kidnapped on Friday around Marian market axis when she went for a wake keep of one of their relations.
Addressing journalists in front of Governor’s office on Tuesday in Calabar, the Chairman NMA ,Cross River, Dr. Innocent Abang, bemoaned the deteriorating security situation in the state and demanded for immediate release of their member.
“Recently, the security situation in the state as a whole has deteriorated and is fast becoming irredeemable.This is evident by the recurrent incidents of kidnapping within Calabar and it’s environs. Currently, this is the sixteenth medical doctor and dependent(s) kidnapped so far…
“We call on Governor Ben Ayade to immediately give directives for mobilisation of human and material resources to effectively curtail the increasing spate of insecurity within the state. It is high time House of Assembly impressed it on the governor to assent without further delay the anti-kidnapping bill which has already been passed by the House,” he stated.
President Medical Women Association of Nigeria, Cross River State chapter, Dr. Bassey Nakanda, said he was “sad, heartbroken and depressed. All the medical women are heartbroken I cannot imagine what has happened to my sister.”
Reacting, security adviser to the governor, Ani Essien, confirmed that they received a distress call last Friday over the kidnap.
“We have been working round the clock since this happened. We have all the information as to the locations and what is happening…The governor is aware of it and has mandated that nobody sleeps until doctor Otu is returned to her colleagues.”
Meanwhile, Plateau State Head of Civil Service, Mr. Izam Azi, said government has directed the payment of hazard allowance to COVID-19 frontline health workers in the state.
Mr. Izi disclosed this when officials of the Correspondent’s Chapel of the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ) paid him a visit in Jos, yesterday.
He said the ministry of finance have been directed to work out modalities of payment, stating that as soon as everything was sorted out, the affected workers would start receiving their payment.
Azi added that over 950 civil servants have so far benefited from the federal Mortgage Bank Home Renovation Loan Scheme of the state government.