Persons With Disabilities Storm Benue Government House, Defy Rain To Protest Unemployment, Non-Payment Of Bursaries By Ortom-led Administration

A group of people living with disabilities, under the platform of the National Association of People Living with Disabilities, Benue State Chapter, on Monday, stormed the Benue State Government’s House to protest the lack of employment opportunities and nonpayment of bursary allowances to their members.

The members of the association were seen gathering in large numbers in front of the state government house.

SaharaReporters gathered that the protesters were at the Government House since 10am and defied the rain to demand to see Governor Samuel Ortom for failing to address their needs for over seven years now.

“We are demanding to see the governor because none of the letters we wrote to him was approved. It is high time we took this move because he is not only representing the able persons, he also represents the disabled,” the group’s spokesperson told SaharaReporters.

He continued, “Among us, we have graduates, we have undergraduates. No job has been given to people with disabilities in Benue and we are finding it hard to cater to our families.

“If you can recall in 2018, 5% of jobs in Benue State were given to our members. But since then, nothing has happened again. Maybe he is not aware. So we decided to come to this gate to relate our challenges to him.

“The other one is disability commission; we want it to be domesticated in Benue. If he doesn’t do it, we don’t have the power to do it for ourselves. The students amongst us have not received bursary (scholarships) awarded to others since seven years back,” he added.