The Nigeria Medical Association, NMA, Cross River chapter has suspended its strike embarked upon on July 16, after the abduction of its member, Prof. Ekanem Ephraim.
Rising from an emergency meeting, State Chairman of NMA, Dr. Felix Archibong gave the state government two weeks to rescue their colleague after which they would meet again to review the actions of government, to determine the next line of action.
“Following a letter of appeal from Gov. Bassey Otu, advice of the national president of the association and for the sake of many of the citizens who are suffering, we have suspended the strike to give government time to rescue our member.
“This action has been carried out despite the fact that our member has not been released; however, if any of our member is kidnapped again, we will go back to strike”, he said.
The association appealed to the security agents to step up and maintain the momentum that has been established in the last few weeks, which has reduced cases of kidnapping in the state.
The chairman prayed that the abducted doctor returns alive but if the opposite happens, there should be modalities by the government for necessary closure of the matter.
This would be to allow the family to mourn the deceased and for the government to do the needful for those she had left behind.
He called on members of the public with valuable information that would lead to the rescue of the abducted neurologist to come forward as the governor had placed a bounty of N5 million on the kidnappers.
Prof. Ekanem Ephraim, a neurologist at the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital was abducted on July 13 from her residence in Calabar by kidnappers who pretended to be patients.
