DOCTORS in Ilorin, Kwara State capital, under the aegis of Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), Tuesday shunned their job for about three hours to file out in their hundreds along strategic roads in the town in honour of their murdered colleague, Dr. Ariyo Adewumi.

Adewumi died a few days ago when suspected assassins invaded his Basin GRA residence in Ilorin, shot him to death before his wife and three children and went away with his private vehicle. The state Police Command is yet to make any arrest over the murder.

Tagged a: "Solemn March", the doctors, from both public and private health institutions in the town, marched through such routes as the Government House, Deputy Governor's Office, Police Headquarters and the state Ministry of Health, demanding a safety assurance from the government in the continuance of their duties to the society.

The well-organised march, in which the police played a prominent role in providing adequate security and orderliness, witnessed only the display of a banner with the inscription: "Armed Attack and General Insecurity: Health Workers More Vulnerable, Stop the Madness Now, Adieu Ariyo."

According to the NMA local boss, Prof. Olayinka Buhari, "this is not a protest in the first instance. We are trying to honour our colleague, but if it will instill the much-needed security we all clamour for, it is good, and it means he has not died in vain.

"In the government-owned hospitals in Kwara today, how many of them have staff quarters for the doctors and other health workers to stay in if they are on calls? Again, how many of these hospitals have security posts? How many of them have ambulances to convey doctors to work in cases of emergency? We are not presenting any letter to any government official in this respect, the words on this banner are enough for them to know what we need and what we are facing."

Buhari, who said about 10 of his members had since the beginning of the year lost their vehicles to armed robbers, added: "We are trying to do our own job even at the great risks. But the governments too should do their own job by providing adequate security for lives and property."

Receiving the NMA members in their hundreds, the Commissioner for Health, Kayode Issa, said but for the urgent state functions, Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed would have received the doctors personally.

Issa said the late doctor was a good friend of the governor and some other top government functionaries in the state, noting that the government would in the next five years be responsible for the educational needs of the children of the deceased. He added that other benefits, which could not be publicly announced, had been planned for the children and wife of the slain doctor.

The Commissioner, who commiserated with the doctors over the loss of their colleague, said the state government has stepped up plans to curb such happenings in the state.