Joint National Association of Persons with Disabilities (JONAPWD) yesterday cried out over what it described as “forged nomination list” of its representatives to the proposed national conference.
This was contained in a statement issued by the outgoing national president of JONAPWD, Danlami Bashara, in Kaduna.
The statement said: “The Conference Committee invited submission of names from the federal and state governments, as well as umbrella bodies of civil society organisations of which JONAPWP is one.
“Surprisingly, the list submitted by JONAPWD, as we learnt from reliable sources, may be dispensed with. We discovered that a member had forged the letter head of the organisation and submitted a list to the Secretarial of the conference which the SGF office initially accepted.
“Secondly, we now know that two more lists of names to represent persons with disabilities have been submitted by two separate federal ministries of government, the Ministries of Health and Women Affairs and Social Development. We believe it is necessary to alert the nation and the world to this so that we are not shortchanged by the conference organisers.”
The group recalled that at the 2005 National Political Reform Conference, former President Olusegun Obasanjo gave persons with disabilities the opportunity to select their own representatives.
“It would be a travesty of justice for the conference committee to accept any list other than that presented by our umbrella body.”
JONAPWD said they must be allowed to speak for themselves, stressing: “We can no longer continue to accept the situation where we are treated on the basis of charity but rather on the basis of social and human rights as enshrined in the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and several other international treaties Nigeria has entered into.”
