Some Natives with Disabilities in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) have called for economic, cultural and social empowerment of person’s with disabilities to alleviate poverty and end street Begging amongst them.
A cross section of Original Inhabitants with Disabilities (OIDA) Made the advocacy at a Consultative Forum on the state of their plight in Kuje, Abuja.
The FCT has over three thousand Original Inhabitants with Disabilities who are natives with various physical challenges in the six area councils of the FCT.
Blueprint gathered that some of them people are physically challenged with conditions such as visual impairment, amputated arms and legs, hearing and speaking impairment among other challenges.
A laboratory scientist, Adiko Musa, whose amputation was caused by an accident in 2014, narrated how unemployment has turned him to a shoe maker.
For the North central Coordinator, Joint National Association of Persons with Disabilities, Comrade Maikumo, and the chairman of FCT Chapter of same Association, Comrade Joseph Wakili, called for rehabilitation of persons with disabilities centres in the territory.
Also speaking, the President, Original Inhabitants with Disabilities in the FCT, Festus Yakubu, emphasized the need for the physically challenged to be culturally, socially and economically empowered.
He appealed to political elites in the area to adhere to the Disability Act signed into law during the previous administration by late former president Muhammad Buhari to enable them have good livelihood instead of street Begging.
On her part, the chairperson Wives of FCT Traditional Rulers Association and the wife of Ona of Abaji, Hajiya Hawa Adamu, promised to canvass more for their cultural and political inclusion in the FCT.