A abducted resident physician, Dr. Orockarrah Orock, of the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital (UNTH), Ituku-Ozalla, Enugu State, has been confirmed to have escaped by the Nigeria Medical Association (NMA).
It was discovered that Orock, who works in the UNTH Anesthesia Department, was abducted on Saturday night while on call duty within the hospital.
Dr. Celestine Ugwoke, the Chairman of the NMA’s Enugu State Chapter, confirmed this to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Monday. She stated that Orock miraculously managed to escape after the kidnappers left him to enjoy a “pleasant time with their weeds and spirits and fell into deep sleep” after feeling satisfied with his wife’s demand for a ransom.
He claimed that the kidnapped doctor eventually crawled out of the area where he was being held in the kidnappers’ cave. He then ran and hiked a distance until he saw people moving around and emerged close to the Four Corner Junction on the Enugu-Port Harcourt Expressway.
“He called his wife and the wife called the UNTH chief security officer who picked him up that midnight of Saturday. We are profoundly grateful to God for his miraculous escape,” he said.
The Chairman, however, said that doctors had become endangered professionals in the state, as kidnappers always target them, especially those working in tertiary health institutions in the state.
“We are really in trouble as doctors are now their target and we are living in fear as the kidnappers now chase us as if they are chasing rats,” he said.
The Chairman threatened that any more abduction of doctors in UNTH, doctors in the teaching hospital would totally down tools, adding that this warning would be extended to other tertiary hospitals in the state.
Ugwoke said the association would be meeting with the Chief Medical Director (CMD) of UNTH to demand a release of the security protocol for the hospital to ensure the safety of all doctors, management staff and patients in the hospital.
“We also want the hospital management to beef up security within the hospital, ensure adequate perimeter fencing of the entire hospital and installation of Close Circuit Television Camera (CCTV) and its monitoring base within the hospital.
“As an association, we have previously met the state’s Commissioner for Health and the Commissioner of Police on the spate of insecurity our members face even in the discharge of their life-saving professional duties.
“All efforts through official letters and other means to pay a courtesy call on Gov. Peter Mbah and intimate him on the vital issue of doctors’ security in the state had proved abortive.
“Maybe, the government wants doctors to leave their duty posts and carry placards to the Enugu Government House before listening to us. This will be very bad if allowed to drag to this point,” he said.
Efforts made to get the Spokesperson for Enugu State Police Command, DSP Daniel Ndukwe, to speak on the matter proved abortive as he did not pick several calls made to his cellphone.
Daily Post