By Jonathan Ugbal
The Joint National Association of Persons With Disabilities, Wednesday, protested the alleged neglect of their members in Cross River State by the governor Ben Ayade’s administration.
Members of the association in the state led by its National and Zonal executives barricaded the Transcorp Metropolitan hotel section of the Murtala Muhammed highway in Calabar to express their grievances and press home their demands.
The Chairman, Cross River State chapter of the Association, Ogah Ojah while speaking with CrossRiverWatch said the disabled were not happy with the way Ayade’s administration was treating them and berated him for excluding them from the list of pressure groups, personalities and unions he met upon assumption of office.
Ojah who described the protest as a preliminary to a planned mega protest said “We are annoyed and we want to make sure that all this irregularities and gross marginalization stops. There should be appointments and economic empowerment for persons with disabilities.”
The Delta state chapter Chairman of the Association, Isaac Omoh, corroborated Ojah’s stance, adding that, “we want the state government to look into the plight of persons with disabilities in this state and until that is done, we are going to be leading a one million man march to the Cross River State government house to ensure that our members are main-streamed into governance.”
The protest which started at about 6pm, lasting over an hour saw a member of the association lay face down on the road, playing dead and caused traffic gridlock for over a 100 metres either way of the rallying point forcing commuters to divert into feeder roads.
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