Doctors Protest Death Of Colleague In Kidnappers Den

MEDICAL doctors in Rivers State under the aegis of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) staged ‘ March of Sorrow’ to the State Police Command headquarters, Moscow Road, Port Harcourt, yesterday over the death of their colleague, Dr. Samuel Okpara, who lost his life at his abductors’ hideout.
    Meanwhile, the State Police Command said, it has killed one of the gang leaders that abducted and killed a medical doctor in Port Harcourt.
State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Dan Bature, while addressing the protesters disclosed that a Police corporal sustained injury during the gun battle with the abductors.
   Also, Policed has confirmed the release of an aide to Gov. Chibuike Amaechi, Mr. Freddy Ndigbara, who was kidnapped for some days.
Bature thanked the GSM Telecommunications Service Providers for helping them in tracking down the perpetrators.
   The Chairman of NMA in the state, Dr. Furo Green, leading the march, said Dr. Okpara was forcefully taken from his office by gunmen last week only for his remains to be found at a cassava farm in Borokiri, five days later.
   According to Dr. Green, the first two doctors, “Dr. Adewale Olugbenga and Dr. Jack Ohvunda Omodu were tortured, beaten with rods and hammers, and denied food, water and medication and eventually shot and released.
   “The last of them, Dr. Sam Okpara, who was kidnapped on Wednesday, February 18, 2015, died in the hands of his captors after five days in captivity and his body was dumped in a cassava farm at Borokiri axis of Port Harcourt, precisely behind Comprehensive School.”
    He said that four other medical doctors in the state had also received kidnap threats from unknown persons, adding that all the unfortunate incidents had made it unsafe for doctors to practice safely in the state.
   Meanwhile, the State Commissioner for Health, Dr. Sampson Parker, had called on the security agencies to intensify their efforts in releasing the doctors from the kidnappers’ den.
   Parker expressed condolences to the families of Late Okpara and those still held captive by the kidnappers.