Diana Orouvie-Omueza
Abuja – Arewa Development Support Initiative, a non-governmental organisation, has called on Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Mohammed Bello to priorities the welfare of the physically challenged.
Ms Ladi Truman, FCT Lead Administrator of the group, made the call on Monday during an intervention visit to the physically challenged community in Karamajiji, Abuja.
Truman said that although the government could not be left alone to provide welfare and other basic amenities for the physically challenged persons.
She, however, said that it was the responsibility and primary purpose of government to provide welfare and implement programmes that would protect, meet the needs and alleviate the lives of the challenged persons in FCT.
“We have done our findings and we discovered that this community was given to the disabled by a former minister of FCT, but nothing has been done to equip, empower, or integrate them into the society.
“So, we have taken it upon ourselves as an Arewa group to see how we can project the plight of the community to the government and the public to draw attention and to seek intervention.
“We want to see how we can alleviate the lives of the disabled persons in the community who we discovered are majorly northerners from the nineteen states of the federation and the FCT,’’ she said.
Truman said that the goal of the organisation’s intervention was to equip, empower and re-integrate People Living With Disabilities in the community back to their states and the society.
Mr Tor Solomon, the organisation’s Benue-FCT Administrator, appealed to the Gederal Government, the FCT administration, non-governmental organisations and well meaning Nigerians not to neglect their service to humanity by intervening through training and empowerment programmes.
According to him, measurable progress will be recorded when everyone participates in equipping, empowering and integrating members’ of the community into the society.
The group supported the community with food items and toiletries.
The FCT disabled community was created in 2008 under the administration of former Minister of FCT, Alhaji Nasir el-Rufai.
It has an estimated population of 5,000 residents and no fewer than 713 children.
(NAN)
