Ahead of Tuesday’s leadership elections for the National Assembly, a coalition of persons with disabilities (PWDs) from different organisations have urged the All Progressives Congress (APC) to back Senator Osita Izunaso as the Senate President of the 10th National Assembly.
They said in Abuja that Izunaso is best for the job, especially that he ensured the wellbeing of PWDs across the country and would be able to even do more for Nigerians collectively.
Some leaders of the PWD organisations including Dr Davidson Hart, a founding father of JONAPWD; Dr Chike Okogun of CARENigeria, Kyennan Mizim, former Executive Chairman, Plateau State Disability Rights Commission; and Barrister Yusuf Iyodo of the Association of Lawyers with Disabilities urged other contenders for the senate presidency seat to withdraw for Senator Izunaso.
“Senator Osita Izunaso is a philanthropist of higher dimension. This humanitarian interest spurred him to found a foremost Non-Governmental Organization called Kpakpando Foundation for PWDs in 2005.
“In the last 18 years, the foundation has painstakingly provided quality assistance to these special citizens through various channels including the Annual Kpakpando Foundation Anniversary where PWDs were gifted with items designed to equip them to acquire requisite skills and competencies to compete in a technological age.
“These include Wheel Chairs (Motorized and Manual), crutches, food processing equipment’s, power generating machines, communication gadgets, sewing machines, and grinding machines not neglecting housing and vehicles,” the organisations said in their joint statement.
They added that the Kpakpando Foundation was a major advocate of Disability Rights Bill passed by the National Assembly and signed by the immediate past President Muhammadu Buhari in 2021.
They said, “The Act Establishing the Disability Commission, therefore to a modest extent is the glory of Kpakpando Foundation and other strategic Stake-holders. With over 5000 persons in its membership, the Foundation has about 500 persons in its tertiary/secondary scholarship schemes. It has further trained and started business for over 3000 people.”
