Cross River State governor Bassey Otu has urged medical doctors on strike over the abduction of their colleague, Prof Ekanem Philip Ephraim, to suspend the action.
The victim was kidnapped in Calabar, the state capital and taken to an unknown destination.
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Otu appealed to the striking doctors to return to their professional calling of saving lives as his administration is doing everything humanly possible to rescue their abducted colleague.
The governor made the appeal when he addressed members of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) who were on a peaceful protest for the unconditional and immediate release of Ephraim.
Otu said, “I want to plead that while we still continue to work for the release of your colleague, please let doctors do the best that they can to save lives, because your main call is to save lives.
“I want you to believe us, that just like you, we are also very pained and we are pained that two wrongs will never make a right.
“A lot of things are happening in our hospitals and my administration is poised to ensure the enabling environment is created for you to carry out your statutory duties at all times.
“Nobody is happy that she was taken even for a day apart from the criminal elements. But we will continue to do everything possible to ensure her safe return to the confines of her family and the association,” he said.
The state chief executive told the aggrieved medical doctors that his administration is closely working with the various security agencies to address the issue of kidnapping in the state.
He lauded contributions and sacrifices of doctors in the state, stressing that his administration will not be defeated by the challenges of those involved in nefarious activities.
“Though it is a bad situation but at the darkest end of the tunnel, there is always a light. It is true that we have promised the season of sweetness, we will continue to live by the ethos and I know that Rome was not built in a day, the journey of a thousand miles begins one day, not too long we will clear our society of all miscreants”.
Earlier, the welfare officer of the state chapter of the National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD), Dr Mino Magam, said Ekanem had been with her abductors for over 25 days, which had left them worried.
“We are not even sure if our colleague is safe, if she is well and if she is alive. We have come because the pains we are suffering, we know that other Cross River people are also suffering the pain,” Magam said.