A nongovernmental organization, One House Development Initiative and Members of the Osun State chapter of the Joint National Association of Persons with Disabilities, have expressed concerns over continued neglect of persons with disabilities by the Osun State government under the leadership of Senator Ademola Adeleke.
According to a statement jointly signed by the Team Lead of OHDI, Tubosun Olabomi; Chairman, Secretary and Women Coordinator of JONAPWD, Stephen Oluwafemi, Smith Aghanti and Elizabeth Ishola respectively, the leadership of persons with disabilities expressed dissatisfactions with the alleged neglect by the government.
The JONAPWD said all attempts to meet with the Deputy Governor, Prince Kola Adewusi, who doubles as the Commissioner for Sports and Special Needs, have been proved abortive, while the meeting with the Special Adviser to the Governor on Special Needs, Kamil Aransi has yielded no results as the office has neglected them.
The statement reads, “One House Development Initiative and the National Association of Persons with Disability, Osun State Chapter wish to express our frustration and feeling over obvious neglect of the Persons with Disabilities by the Osun State Government under the leadership of Governor Ademola Nurudeen Jackson Adeleke.
“One House Development Initiative is an Osun-based non-governmental organization which has been working with the Person with Disabilities, hence the need for the joint Press Statement.
We want to express our dissatisfaction and the feeling of neglect as we have tried to reach the Deputy Governor, Prince Kola Adewusi, who doubles as the Honourable Commissioner for Sports and Special Needs, to discuss the needs of the over 57,000 persons with disabilities but all our efforts through official avenues and means of lobbying have failed. We have several letters sent to his office but none has been responded to or acted upon by the Deputy Governor.
“One House Development Initiative been trying to meet the Special Adviser to the Governor on Special Needs, Hon. Kamil Aransi to discuss issues affecting persons with special needs especially on how the school for the special needs will meet up with their contemporary associates in other states in the south west region. We also want to state that the meeting between JONAPWDs and Hon. Aransi has no fruit while his office has not in anyway carried we the stakeholders along in his decision making. Hence, the obvious neglect.
“We are using this medium to call on our performing Governor, Senator Ademola Adeleke to immediately look into the Persons with Disabilities in Osun State an bring about inclusion. The implementation of the Disability Act is very crucial as it will bring a lot of succor to our people. Empowerment of our people through jobs opportunities is also very important to us. This and many others are what we aim at discussing with the Deputy Governor which has not materialized. We don’t know why his doors are shut at us.
“JONAPWDs in Osun State has five clusters which are; Albinism, Hearing Impairment, Visual Impairment, Physical disability and Spinal Cord Injuries. Planning for us without us may not bring expected results as the needs of each of the groups are not the same.”
SSA threatens to sue JONAPWD
When contacted by InsightMedia, Aransi said he won’t respond to the statement, while threatening to sue whoever involved in it.
He then go ahead to threat the Chairman of JONAPWD, Stephen Oluwafemi via a phone, stating that he sue him (JONAPWD Chairman) for approving a press statement.
According to an audio conversation obtained by InsightMedia, Aransi said, “I’ll take actions against you. I’ll sue you for approving such statement. It’s a defamation of character.”
Confirming the threats to Oluwafemi, Aransi sent a message to InsightMedia that he has spoken to the JONAPWD Chairman and told him that he’ll sue him over the press release.
