By Richard Akintade, Osogbo
Members of the Joint National Association Of Persons With Disability (JONAPWD), across Osun State staged a peaceful protest at the state governor’s office in Abere to demand the signing of disability bill in the state on Wednesday.
The physically challenged persons in their numbers armed themselves with placards with different inscriptions; ”Show Commitments To Disability Rights”, We Are Not Second Citizens In Our Country We Have Equal Rights”, “Nothing About Us Without Us”, “Disability Inclusion is Essential To Good Governance”, “We Ask Osun State Government To Domesticate National Disability Acts,” among others.
While speaking, the secretary of the group, Comrade Sunday Smith said that persons with disability from different clusters staged a peaceful and well-coordinated protest to demand the signing of the disability bill into law in the state.
Smith said that the essence of protest is not to attack the present government but to see how the bill would be signed into law.
He further said that when the bill is signed into law members will leverage on it, saying unemployment, education, social attention, and social discrimination will be a thing of the past.
According to him, “We are appealing to the government under the administration of Governor Adegboye Oyetola to sign the bill and make it a reality.
Another member of the group, Lanre Olakusibe, urged the Osun government to sign the disability bill into law, saying the bill has been signed into law at the federal level.
Olakusibe noted that it is important to sign the bill into law to have a disability-inclusive society.
However, the ex-president of the group, Kehinde Onitiju, commended Governor Oyetola for his support for the persons with disability in the state, urging the governor to crown his efforts by signing the bill.
Onitiju noted that President Muhammadu Buhari has ordered all the state governors to sign the disability bill into law, adding only Osun is left behind in signing the bill in the South West region of Nigeria.
Addressing the crowd, Head of Service, Dr. Festus Oyebade said that the present administration under the watch of Governor Oyetola is very concerned about the affair of persons with disability.
Oyebade disclosed that the Governor has given automatic employment to all the applicants during the recruitment of teachers in the state.
He, however, assured the group that the governor will sign the bill before his first tenure comes to an end.
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