PWDS stage protest to demand assent to disability bill in Osun

THE Joint National Association of Persons With Disabilities (JONAPWD), on Wednesday, staged a protest at the Governor’s Office in Osun to demand assent to the Disability Bill in the state.

Members of the association in their hundreds carried placards with different inscriptions like; ”Show Commitments to Disability Rights, We Are Not Second Class Citizens In Our Country, and 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.

Sunday Smith, the Secretary of the group, said that Persons with Disability from different clusters staged the peaceful and well-coordinated protest to demand the signing of the disability bill into law in the state.

Smith said that the essence of their protest was not to attack the present government, but to press for the speedy signing into law of the bill

He further said that when the bill is signed into law, PWDS would leverage it to end unemployment, lack of access to education, social attention, and social discrimination.

“We are appealing to the state government, under the administration of Gov. Gboyega Oyetola, to sign the bill and make it a reality.” the secretary said

Also, Kehinde Onitiju, a former President of the group, in his remarks, commended Gov. Oyetola for his support for persons with disability in the state, urging the governor to crown his efforts by signing the bill.

Onitiju said that President Muhammadu Buhari had ordered all the state governors to sign the disability bill into law, but only Osun State was yet to sign the bill into law in the South West region of Nigeria.

The Head of Service in Osun, Festus Oyebade, said that the present administration under Gov. Oyetola was very concerned about the affair of PWDS.

Oyebade said that the governor had given automatic employment to PWDS who applied for teaching employment during the recent recruitment exercise in the state.

He assured the group that the governor would assent to the bill before the end of his first tenure.