The Commonwealth Medical Association (CMA) on Thursday said it remained saddened over the murder of a professor of paediatrics and the Chairman, Medical Advisory Committee of the Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospital, Prof. Jerome Elusiyan.
Elusiyan was killed in the line of duty while returning from a Clinical examination of undergraduate medical students of Ambrose Ali University in Edo State of Nigeria.
Dr. Osahon Enabulele, CMA President, in an open letter sent to President Muhammadu Buhari and forwarded to DAILY POST, the Association appealed for improved security and ambulance services on Nigerian highways to avoid needless killings and ensure timely emergency services.
The CMA called on the Nigerian government to conduct an urgent appraisal of the security situation with a view to strengthening the security system through the deployment of more effective security measures, along with the concrete address of other social determinants.
“The CMA is further dismayed by the unholy killing and kidnapping of Medical doctors and other health professionals, including the recent killing of Aid workers, especially in the North Eastern part of Nigeria, in the course of their sacred duties”, it read.
“The CMA finds worrisome and totally unacceptable the fact that some kidnapped medical doctors and health workers are yet to be released after over a year in the kidnappers’ den. This calls for great concern, especially at this time when Nigeria is grappling with a burgeoning phenomenon of external brain drain from her health sector.
“The CMA therefore calls on governments at all levels to do more to protect her citizens, including medical doctors and other health workers who have decided to stay back in Nigeria to render health care services and mentor younger generations.
“The CMA passionately calls for strengthening of security measures in the health workplace to safeguard the few numbers of medical doctors and other health professionals currently working in Nigeria (their fatherland) so as not to lose them to more secure and receptive climates.
“As Prof. Jerome Elusiyan begins his final journey home today, CMA condoles with his immediate family, the Nigerian government, the Nigerian Medical Association and the Nigerian health community over the sad demise and pray for the eternal repose of the great soul”.
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