Disabled persons in Rivers state under the aegis of Joint National Association of persons with Disabilities, Rivers State Chapter recently protested to the Government House, Port Harcourt demanding for the immediate implementation of the state law No. 11 of 2012 tagged “Persons with Disabilities Welfare Enhancement law”.
In a statement read out by its chairman, Mr Kie Obomanu, the group which also displayed placards with various inscriptions demanded for Accessibility, Inclusiveness, Integration and Mainstreaming of government policies in education, health, housing ,economic empowerment and agriculture, saying that they have lost their patience with the state government.
JONAPWD also demanded for the appointment of a Special Assistant to the governor on disability matters, provision of means of transportation for the executive members as well as office accommodation and creation of enabling environment for them to be involved in politics.
The group equally urged the RSG to build a new school for persons with disabilities that is totally inclusive and as well renovate for them the dilapidated schools for the handicapped.
According to the chairman, “All employers of labour in public organization shall as much as possible have persons with Disabilities constituting at least 5% of their employment by section 29 of the law”.
They also appealed for the employment of sign language interpreters in government hospitals in the state and the state media organizations.
”We also demand for 5% employment chances in multi-national companies as well as empowerment, skills acquisition programmes and entrepreneurship development for PWDS”.
The group said that chairmen of Niger Delta Conference of the disabled persons will be taking place in March 2021 in Port Harcourt and appealed for support from the RSG to host the programme.
They also appealed to the RSG to support them carry out a survey/data collection on the disability community to enable them get a data bank across the disability clusters including physical, visually impair, hearing impaired, spinal cord, albino, leprosy, intellectual as well as aggravated delay in getting a website to house the data.
The group equally appealed to the RSG to help them establish a Disability Welfare Enhancement Fund. (DWEF); carryout empowerment scheme; free medical treatment; building of a craft development centre, as well as provision of mobility aids and assistive devices including digital hearing aids, wheelchair, canes for the blind, laptops, Braille Machine, and recorders.
Mr. Obomanu used the opportunity to appeal to the RSG to revert his salary that was suspended for six months in the past due to his activities in the Disability Rights Advocacy.
Above all, the group called on the state government to set up a tripartite committee to look into all their demands to enhance their living standard.
The Chief of Staff, Government House, Port Harcourt, Chief (Engr) Emeka Woke who addressed the disabled persons promised to forward their protest letter to the state governor for immediate attention.
