Following abduction of two nurses at Idon General Hospital, Governor Nasir el-Rufai of Kaduna state has been given till Friday to ensure release of the nurses and secure the state healthcare facilities or face health workers’ strike.

The two nurses were kidnapped by gunmen on Thursday night while on night duty at Idon General Hospital and there has been no contact with them since then.

Kaduna Health Professional Forum, which comprises doctors, pharmacists, nurses, midwives and laboratory scientists, rose from its emergency meeting on Saturday to condemn their abduction and decry attitude of Kaduna state government to the issue.

The Forum also lamented the poor state of security at healthcare facilities in the state, while demanding for armed security.

This was contained in a communiqué jointly signed after their meeting in Kaduna on Saturday by Nigeria Medical Association (NMA) Chairman Kaduna state branch, Dr Aliyu Sokomba, President, Association of Resident Doctors, Kaduna state, Dr Umar Musa, representative of Chairman Medical and Health Workers Union, Abdullahi Muhammad, and Secretary of National Association of Nigerian Nurses and Midwives, Comrade Christiana Bawa.

“We observed with great sadness the state of insecurity in the state, this follows the abduction of two health workers at Rural Hospital Idon, Kajuru LGA of Kaduna state on Thursday, 22nd April 2021. It is very unfortunate that the life saver’s life is not safe in Kaduna state.

“That hospitals/clinics in the state are not well secured, being that they are manned by poorly motivated and under trained private security personnel and had not been paid for over a year, they are insufficient and not equipped to handle the situation of insecurity,” it observed.

The Congress however called on the state government to “immediately deploy armed security personnel in all our facilities and other possible targets to ensure that health care workers are adequately protected in order to provide the continuum of health care services to all residents of the state as and when needed.

“We equally call on the state government and all the relevant security agencies to do all in her powers to ensure that our abducted colleagues return to their families safe to boost the confidence of the demoralized health care Workers in the state.

“Government should gather the best technical support and mobilize the necessary resources for effective and timely implementation of measures that protect the health care workers, the patients and their caregivers. Security is everybody’s responsibility, so every health worker needs to be extra cautious, however, the government should take responsibility to safeguard the health care workers.

“If the above resolutions 1 and 2 (rescue of abducted nurses and deployment of armed security in health facilities) are not met within five working days, we will be left with no choice but to down tool. As Health Workers we must apply the principle of “injury to one is injury to all” and the government must note with all sense of responsibility that SECURITY FOR ALL HEALTH WORKERS is SACROSANCT.”

While lamenting what it called the shocking retrenchment and conversion of health workers to casuals by the Kaduna state government, the Congress said, “we seek immediate restoration of the retrenched health workers in the state.”