C'River: Health Administrators Demand Immediate Release of Abducted Doctor 

By Edem ITA

The Institute of Health Service Administrators of Nigeria has lend its voice to the growing calls for the release of a lead consultant of neurology at the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital,UCTH,Professor Ekanem Ephraim who has been in captivity since July 13, when she was abducted from her home by armed bandits.

Speaking in Calabar, the President of the Institute, Pst RoseMary Archibong Esq, urged security agencies in the state to intensify their efforts to secure her release stressing that her continuous detention by kidnappers was dehumanizing and traumatic. 

Pst.Archibong said "for a woman to be held in bondage by unknown persons in an unknown destination for over three weeks now is horrifying and degrading. This is unacceptable."

The health care boss expressed solidarity with the state branch of the Nigerian Medical Association NMA, over the stance over the plight of their abducted member but lamented that the work to rule action has inflicted collateral damage on the health needs of the state given the effect of the action on the patients.

She expressed empathy for her professional colleagues, her family and all the patients that relied on Prof Phillip Ephraim’s compassionate medical care.

She solicited for divine intervention for her while urging the NMA to reconsider the work to rule action in view of the plight of patients in hospitals across the state.