The Joint National Association of Persons with Disabilities (PWDs), Southern Ijaw Local Government Area chapter of Bayelsa State, has advocated that the state government make empowering them a priority, News About Nigeria reports.
This call was made when a delegation of JONAPWD in the area, led by its president, Salvation Enoch, visited Alagoa Morris, Head of the Environmental Rights Action Niger Delta Resource Centre, in Yenagoa, the state capital, on Monday.
Enoch, while speaking, noted that people living with disabilities in the state also possessed talents, including bead-making and singing, among others, adding that what they needed was training programmes that would hone the existing skills, enabling them to become employable.
He lamented that the state lacked a disability home or office in Southern Ijaw, stating that the state did nothing to celebrate them even on World Disability Days.
He further disclosed that they have been denied access to their representatives in government, particularly in the executive and legislative arms, where they had hoped to be given an audience to express themselves and state their challenges.
The President lamented that they were suffering a great deal of discrimination and police brutality and appealed to the ERA Niger Delta Resource Centre to assist them in pushing their issues till it gets to the appropriate authorities.
“If you look at the Southern Ijaw area, we are the most vulnerable people and we have not gotten the opportunity to speak on issues affecting us as persons with disabilities, especially the neglect that we have been facing,” he said.
