By: Taneh Beemene,
The Joint Association of Persons With Disabilities (JONAPWD) in the Niger Delta has urged the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) to stop giving their due entitlements to fraudsters masquerading in the name of the association to assess empowerment programmes and other incentives meant for people with disabilities.
The leadership of the association in the nine NDDC catchment states of Rivers, Bayelsa, Akwa Ibom, Delta, Abia, Edo, Cross River and Ondo, in a joint press statement, in Port Harcourt, accused the NDDC of slighting the real leadership of persons with disabilities in the region and identifying with impostors, thereby aiding misrepresentation in the body.
They said that their action was denying the real target beneficiaries of the commission’s empowerment policies and programmes for persons with disabilities their due.
The Coordinating Chairman of the association in the Niger Delta, Kie Obomanu, who read the statement during a media briefing in Port Harcourt, at the Weekend, said the body was nationally and internationally recognised with the mandate and responsibility of supervising, regulating and acting on behalf of persons with disabilities in Nigeria.
Obomanu, who is also the chairman of the association in Rivers State said, “It has come to the notice of all the state elected chairmen of JONAPWD in the nine Niger Delta catchment states that there is a group of persons/NGOs masquerading as the true representatives of persons with disabilities. It is sad that these purported leaders are not the leaders of the disability community but they corner whatever is given them.
“This is why we, the elected chairmen of the association, have come out to draw the attention of the NDDC and the general public to their unwholesome activities. We want the NDDC to note that the activities of these individuals and groups are illegal and constitute infraction on the rights of the chairmen of the association across the states”.
The body also called for the activation of disability desks in organisations and institutions for proper interface with the managements of issues affecting persons with disabilities.
The statement was jointly signed by Kie Obomanu, chairman of JONAPWD in Rivers State; Offiong Edet Bassey, Akwa Ibom; Ikilowei Eric, Bayelsa; Nwaocha Rex, Imo; Stanley Onyebuchi, Abia; Livinus Okpa, Cross River; Ann Ojugo, Edo; and Abiodun Olusegun, Ondo.
