PH Mundial – Port Harcourt Online Newspaper News Across The Region
Related Articles
The Rivers State Government has warned physically-challenged persons in the state against acts capable of breaching public peace.
This followed the picketing of the offices of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) in Port Harcourt by some persons living with disabilities on Tuesday. The physically-challenged persons, under the auspices of Great Mind Foundation, had protested the alleged failure of the commission to fulfill its promise of training them.
Addressing a maiden press briefing in Port Harcourt on Tuesday, the senior special assistant to the Rivers State governor on Physically-Challenged Matters, Mr. Itekena Altraide, said it was wrong for the people living with disabilities to embark on a protest that would obstruct traffic flow on major roads in the state.
Altraide said, “The menace of some persons with disabilities blocking certain roads and access to companies and organisations in Rivers State, thereby disturbing the free flow of traffic and pedestrian, is orchestrated without the knowledge and permission of this office and it is condemned.
Noting that it was improper for aggrieved persons living with disabilities to hold travelers hostage on the Aba-Port Harcourt Expressway, he warned that “people living with disabilities should desist from disturbing public peace.
“It is not the primary function of this office to maintain public peace, but the ordeal has been communicated to the Commissioner of Police in the state and other security apparatus in the state and we will readily cooperate with them in curbing this menace.”
Altraide said his office (the Disability Office), which was established by Governor Nyesom Wike in 2016 to cater for the needs of the people living with disabilities, would partner security operatives in curbing the menace of persons living with disabilities who were disturbing public peace in the state.
Meanwhile, the Rivers State governor, Chief Nyesom Wike, has approved the hosting of the 2017 World Disability Day Celebration in the state.
According to the senior special assistant to the governor on Physically-Challenged Matters, Itekena Altraide, “the Rivers State Persons with Disabilities Stakeholders Conference, scheduled for Wednesday 29 – Thursday 30 November, 2017, is to commemorate the Year 2017 World Disability Day, with the theme: ‘Achieving 17 Goals for the future We Want.’
The conference main objectives, Altraide said, are to facilitate practical action to mainstream disability awareness, public enlightenment, segmented development and inclusion of persons with disability in developmental activities; to highlight progress and obstacles in implementing disability-sensitive projects, policies and developments; among others.
He further advised physically-challenged persons who indulge in controlling vehicular traffic along highways so as to solicit alms, to desist from doing so as such poses a threat to their lives.
