28th December, 2017
By Kazeem Ugbodaga
The Lagos State Office of Disability Affairs, LASODA, on Thursday warned People Living With Disabilities, PLWDs, against any form of lawlessness and be civil.
General Manager, LASODA, Dr. Babatunde Awelenje, at an end of year news conference in Ikeja, Lagos, Southwest Nigeria, said disability should not be used as an avenue for lawlessness, saying that the office would be engaging more in advocacy in 2018 to address the issue.
According to him, advocacy was key to correcting certain behaviours and impression, saying that “our people still need to be sensitized.”
Awelenje stated that LASODA would never subscribe or support the charity model of disability whereby PLWDs were being pitied and giving arms as a form of charity.
He also called on parents who had children with physical challenge not to hide them, but to enroll them in school so that they could acquire knowledge that would help them in the future.
Awelenje restated that advocacy would aggressively be pursued as PLWDs were still backward and needed to be sharpened.
The LASODA boss said the Office would also empower members through skills acquisition programmes next year
He also disclosed of plans to established coordinating offices of LASODA in the five divisions of the state to better cater for the needs of PLWDs in the state.
Awalenje also disclosed that LASODA had begun the registration of PLWDs in the state and that so far, 3,000 physically challenged people had been captured in the database, saying that registration was still ongoing, while calling on those yet to be registered to come forward to do so at LASODA’s office.