by Rachel Ogbu

Physically challenged people in Delta state shut down the Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme (SURE-P) secretariat on Friday to protest their alleged exclusion from the programme by the chairman of Ughelli North Local Government Area Transition Committee, Delta State, Friday Akpoyibo.

The chairman of the Ughelli North Local Government Area chapter of the association, Ernest Igbuzor, said: “The council chairman has reneged on various promises he made to us.  Our group is under the supervision of the State Ministry of Women Affairs and we have presented a proposal which is keyed into by the council’s administration”.

According to reports, eyewitness said Akpoyibo fled his office before the aggrieved disabled persons arrived the council’s secretariat adding that a bus belonging to the National Union of Local Government Employees, NULGE, was nearly vandalised.

Vanguard reports:

Quick intervention of the Divisional Police Officer in charge of the Ughelli ‘A’ Division, Mr. Gardo Garaji, was said to have saved the situation. Chanting war songs, the disabled persons alleged that the council chairman made several unfulfilled promises to them, vowing to cripple activities of the council if their demand was met.

Urging Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan to come to their rescue by prevailing on  Akpoyibo to carry them along in the running of the council, the physically challenged persons, under the aegis of the Joint National Association of Persons With Disabilities, JONAPW,  said they had lost confidence in the administration of Akpoyibo.