Ahead of the November 16th, 2024 Governorship Election in Ondo State, the entire community of People with Disabilities, under the auspices of ‘PWD Odatiwa Odirorun Forum’ (PWDOOF), have thrown their weights behind the governorship ambition of Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa.
Sola Aiku, the chairman of the group, in a press statement made available to journalists on Monday in Akure, said the good impact and inclusion of PWDs in governance in the last seven and half years of Oluwarotimi Akeredolu/Lucky Aiyedatiwa Administration and for all the good welfare packages they have enjoyed could not be taken for granted, hence their support for him.
He said, “We expect that the good things and dividends of democracy will continue even better under this Aiyedatiwa administration, and that is why we are promising to mobilize members of the disability communities, their families and friends to vote en masse for Lucky Aiyedatiwa come 16th November 2024.
“While we are playing our parts to support the government, we also need to reiterate our calls for more gains of democracy from the government. We need more employment opportunities for our numerous qualified graduates, reasonable empowerment packages for our artisans, traders and others who have acquired various skills and also seeking continuous palliative packages to cushion the effect of this harsh economy that is seriously biting on all Nigerians.
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“We encourage every eligible voter with disabilities to fully participate in all the electioneering activities before the next election, and that they should ensure going out to vote for the winning candidate, who is the luckiest one among all the contestants, Governor Orimisan Lucky Aiyedatiwa so that people with disabilities can continue to enjoy more political inclusions in government, and have the full implementation of the Nigerian Disability Law (2018) in Ondo State during his full tenure in office. Truly, Ondo State is very lucky to have Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa.
“We also disassociate ourselves from a politically motivated staged protest by some unknown faces among the disability last week, who claimed to be a faction of the disability group of the APC.
“We are disheartened reading news on the pages of both print and other media channels how these people were threatening the governor by telling him of how people with disabilities will not vote for the governor come 16th November 2024 to continue doing the good developmental and lives changing programmes in Ondo state should he fails to remove the Chairman of Agency for the welfare of Persons with Disabilities, Hon. Folasade Arise from office over baseless allegations.
“We frown at such callous and unguided threats to the highly exalted office of the governor which was not in any way connected with advocating the general interest of the disability community in Ondo state. We are also very much aware of various activities and impact of the Agency for the Welfare of Persons with Disabilities in which one of our members, Hon. Folasade Arise is currently heading this arm of government with the responsibility of taking care of all issues of disabilities communities.
“This agency with good and God-fearing dedicated officers is responsible for entire citizens and residents with disabilities in the state, so also those who are not members of any of the officially recognized seven cluster groups of disability in Ondo State.
“We wonder why some few individuals will now go on protest and make a libellous newspaper story calling for the removal of the Chairman of this Agency, Folasade Arise on baseless excuses when there is no evidence from them to back up their phantom allegations. This is purely a defamatory act against ourselves.
“As a good and progressive forum, PWDOOF is very much aware that the present administration of Governor Lucy Aiyedatiwa made a great significant of about 50 percent increment to the 2024 budget of the agency so that it will be able to meet up with its activities knowing fully well that welfare of persons with disabilities is a priority by any government, especially at this critical situation in the country when we are battling with socio-economic challenges.”
