The popular Calabar Highways were taken on the 17th Feb, 2016 by disabled people due to def ears by the state government.
The roads that link the city of Calabar to other towns and states were closed down by the disabled people running from Cross River State Basin Authority towards 8Miles and Army Junction. Below is the reason why they had to do what they did.
Chairman of the association Ogar Inyang said:
“The government of Cross River State is insensitive to our existence; they behave as if we do not exist. They treat us as if we have committed crime being disabled. “We’ve exhausted all avenues to dialogue with government. We wrote to the governor, deputy governor, chief of staff, we wrote to the House of Assembly, wrote to the commissioner of Police, made efforts to see the wife of the governor to plead with her to talk to her husband to listen to us but all efforts were in vain. “We need a secretariat and vehicles to cater for our transport need. One of us should be appointed as special adviser on persons with disabilities to give us a sense of belonging.”
Also speaking, Etim Okon, the group’s Southern Senatorial District coordinator, said the solution to the quagmire was for Governor Ayade to address them in person, else “no retreat, no surrender.”
“We are on the road because the government has refused to respond to our efforts. We have been dehumanised, reduced to beggars despite our intellectual capabilities.
“The government is giving appointment, SA this, SA that, but we are never considered. Last week, we staged a warning protest but nobody answered us. Today’s protest is a child’s play compared to the next one. We shall close down this state for days.
“In Nigeria, we have almost five million people with disability and a number of them are in Cross River. They are not catered for in the budget. Let me ask, what is government’s policy on the education and health of people with disabilities? They are talking of housing, what are their plans for housing for people with disabilities?
“Ordinarily, people pay N100 from this place to Watt market, but we spent as high as N400. Nobody cares about us. Disability is not bought in the market, if it was, none of us would buy. Ayade, as a learned man, knows how people like us should be treated but he is turning a blind eye, why, why?”
The disabled people kept the rampage as they were with placards, reading: “Why are we to reated like less human, stigmatised in our state? “If disability is a crime, give us amnesty,” “Governor Ayade, respect the United Nations Convention on human rights of persons with disability,” “Governor Ayade, give us appointment, we also voted you into office, disability can affect anyone,” among others.
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