SEVEN officials of the Nigerian Medical Association, NMA, Enugu State chapter, were on Wednesday arrested by the police in Enugu for protesting abduction of an eight-month pregnant medical practitioner, Dr. Chidinma Okwor, by suspected kidnappers.

The doctors, who staged a peaceful protest on some streets of Enugu, were arrested and detained at the state CID for over five hours before they were released Wednesday night.

Arrested were the state Chairman of NMA, Dr Kenechukwu Madu, his Vice, Dr George Ugwu, state Secretary, Dr Peace Amaraegbunam, Chairman, Association of Resident Doctors, ARD, University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital, UNTH, Enugu, Dr Ugwunna Nwachukwu, his secretary, Dr. Enebe and two other doctors.

The state Police Public Relation Officer, PPRO, Ebere Amaraizu, who confirmed the arrest yesterday, however, said the medical practitioners were only invited for questioning and were released after their statements were obtained.

He said they were arrested for violating the state government’s law banning any form of public procession in the state.

”The doctors were arrested because their protest march was against the law made by the state government banning any form of public procession. Going by that law, any type of protest is outlawed in the state and we are enforcing it, he said”.

”They were only invited for questioning and after taking their statements they were released. We did not detain any of them,” the police spokesman said.

The medical doctors who narrated their ordeal to newsmen yesterday condemned the action of the police saying they were not aware of any law that proscribed peaceful protest in the state or in the country as a whole.

They NMA members who converged at the Parklane Hospital, Enugu for another round of protest yesterday dispersed because of the presence of plain-clothe security men deployed to check mate them.

The doctors were angered by what they described as the failure of the police to secure the release of their colleague who was abducted since ten days ago from her residence.