Anambra: ARD-NAUTH protests continued detention of  ‘Ganiyat Popoola, seven months after kidnap

MEMBERS of the Association of Resident Doctors (NARD), Nnamdi Azikiwe University Teaching Hospital Nnewi, Anambra State, have appealed for an urgent and unconditional release of their colleague, Dr Ganiyat Popoola.

The doctors held a solidarity walk around the Akammiri permanent site of the teaching hospital in Nnewi with visits to some wards and ended it with a prayer session at the main gate.

They bore placards with varying inscriptions, including ‘’Free Ganiyat From Kidnappers’, ‘Save Ganiyat’, and ’Help Save Ganiyat’, among others.

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The Nigerian Tribune had earlier reported that Dr Ganiyat Popoola was kidnapped seven months ago at the Senior Staff Quarters of the National Eye Centre Kaduna, Kaduna State.

Speaking to journalists shortly after the solidarity walk on Tuesday, the President of ARD-NAUTH, Dr Chiemezie Agbanu, said the walk was to join voices with the rest of Nigerians, especially doctors, to call for freedom of Ganiyat from kidnappers after over seven months.

Agbanu, who was represented by Dr Adeyemo Adebiyi, chairman of the of the ARD-NAUTH Strategy and Mobilisation Committee, said urgent steps should be taken to stop the spate of kidnappings of doctors.

This solidarity walk is to call for unconditional release of one of our colleagues, Dr Ganiyat, who was kidnapped at the National Health Centre Kaduna and still held in captivity about seven months and 20 days ago.

“It looks like doctors are now an endangered species; they are people who care for the environment and community.

“Once doctors are living in this type of danger, it means the health sector will collapse and brain drain will increase,” he said.

Also speaking, Dr Onyinye Ifezue, 1st Vice President ARD-NAUTH, said they were worried about the mental, psychological, and physical health of the woman who had been in the captivity of unknown gunmen.

Ifezue said Ganiyat’s case was worse because she was a woman with numerous vulnerabilities and pleaded with the authorities and captors alike to free the doctor.

“We are worried because we are doctors and the victim is a woman. Only God knows what she must have been passing through in the hands of those kidnappers for almost eight months.

“We know that if she were a politician, more would have been some to rescue her; she has been exposed to physical violation and mental and psychological torture as a result of being sroersted from her family,” she said.

On his part, Dr Nnaemeka Sibeudu, 2nd Vice President ARD-NAUTH, said doctors were condemning kidnapping of any Nigerian irrespective of their trade as it was a violation of their freedom to movement.

Sibeudu commended all those involved in the process of securing Ganiyat’s release for the efforts they had made and wondered why the victim was still being held by her captors.

“We want to call on the Federal Government, the National Assembly, the security agencies, and governors to ensure Ganiyat is released immediately and unconditionally,’’ he said.