The Nigeria Medical Association (NMA) has confirmed the escape of an abducted resident doctor, Dr Orockarrah Orock attached to the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital (UNTH), Ituku-Ozalla, Enugu State.
It was learnt that Orock attached to the Anasthesia Department of the UNTH was on Saturday night kidnapped within the hospital premises, while on call duty, reports NAN.
The Chairman of NMA, Enugu State Chapter, Dr Celestine Ugwoke, gave the confirmation in Enugu today.
Ugwoke said that Orock miraculously made his escape after the kidnappers felt satisfied with the offer to pay the ransom demanded by his wife and gone to have “nice time with their weeds and spirits and fell into deep sleep”.
According to him, the abducted doctor gradually crawled away from the spot he was kept in the kidnappers’ den and later trekked and ran a distance before sighting human activities and then came out near the Four Corner Junction of Enugu-Port Harcourt Expressway.
“He called his wife and the wife called the UNTH chief security officer that 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 said that any more abduction of any doctor in UNTH again, 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 that the association would be meeting with the Chief Medical Director (CMD) of UNTH to mandate him to release security protocol for the hospital, to ensure safety of all doctors, management staff, staff and patients in the hospital.
