Friday, February 14, 2025
HomeEbonyi State DiaryEbonyi Persons With Disabilities Decry Delayed Empowerment Of Members - From Magnus...

Ebonyi Persons With Disabilities Decry Delayed Empowerment Of Members – From Magnus Aluma/Abakaliki

 

Physically Challenged Persons in Ebonyi State, South East Nigeria, have raised concern over alleged delay in the disbursement of the one million naira empowerment funds recently approved for some of their members by the state government.

The people under the aegis of Joint National Association of Persons With Disabilities, JONAPWD, told a press conference, yesterday in Abakaliki, the Ebonyi State capital, that out of a total of one hundred and seventy one members of the association selected to benefit from the empowerment scheme, only thirty nine of them have been paid.

Ebonyi State Chairman of the Association, Mr Franklin Chime, said governor Francis Nwifuru, approved the inclusion of 171 persons living with disabilities in government’s empowerment programme meant for one thousand and three hundred Ebonyi residents, and recalled that the governor also assured that the beneficiaries would receive one million naira each, from the empowerment scheme.

According to him, “the state governor, Chief Francis Nwifuru, approved the inclusion of one hundred and seventy one persons living with disabilities in the state, in the government empowerment programme meant for one thousand and three hundred Ebonyi residents, with assurance that each of the beneficiaries would receive one million naira.”

The chairman explained that the names of the selected members of the association, which cut across the 171 political wards in the 13 local government areas of the state, had been submitted to the empowerment committee, but regretted that a total of 132 members of the association are yet to be paid.

Continuing, he said, ” currently, 39 out of 171 members of the Joint National Association of Persons with Disabilities, Ebonyi State Chapter have received alerts of the one million naira empowerment fund as approved by His Excellency, Governor Francis Nwifuru. Our members are very grateful to the governor who, out of his magnanimity, approved funds for this empowerment.”

Chime further said, “we thank His Excellency for giving 171 slots to the persons with disabilities in Ebonyi State. We made sure that each of our members benefitted from the empowerment programme because we have members in 171 political wards cutting across the 13 local government areas of the state. We are worried that till now, only 39, out of the 171 beneficiaries have received the alerts, while 132 of us have not been paid.”

“We have sent the list of the 132 of us who have not seen their alerts to the committee in charge of the disbursement, but no response has been given to us yet,” the chairman emphasised.

“That’s why we want to use this opportunity to appeal to the governor to assist us by directing the committee to pay our members, the 132 of them, to be happy like the 39 of us, as the empowerment is per head,” he insisted.

In her contribution, the woman leader of the association, Mrs Ugochinyere Okechukwu noted that the process of accessing the fund was tedious to the Persons with disabilities.

She, however thanked Governor Nwifuru for his style of governance, which she said, was “all-inclusive”, and further pressed for the immediate payment of the remaining beneficiaries, just as she called for more inclusion of disabled women in the programmes of the state government.

RELATED ARTICLES

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

- Advertisment -
Google search engine

Most Popular

Recent Comments