The hearing of a ₦66 trillion disability rights class-action suit seeking judicial recognition of long-term trauma-related psychiatric and psychosocial impairments as disabilities has been adjourned to September 9, 2026, by the Federal High Court in Abuja.
The suit, filed as No. FHC/ABJ/CS/1824/2026, was adjourned on Monday by Justice Joyce Abdulmalik. The applicants are seeking structural and punitive damages, which they say are linked to decades of systemic neglect, discrimination and exclusion of persons with disabilities since Nigeria gained independence in 1960.
Beyond the monetary claim, the applicants are asking the court to formally recognise long-term psychiatric and psychosocial conditions, including trauma-related impairments, as disabilities protected under Nigeria’s Discrimination Against Persons with Disabilities (Prohibition) Act, 2018, as well as the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD).
They cited clinical studies involving Almajiri children, street-exposed youths and traditional Tsangaya pupils as evidence of significant psychiatric and trauma-related conditions which, they argue, have not received adequate disability-specific protection.
The applicants are also seeking an order to stop the proposed national convention and election of the Joint National Association of Persons with Disabilities (JONAPWD), scheduled to hold from October 18 to 21, 2026, in Kaduna.
According to their court filing, the proposed election is being organised under the 2011/2014 JONAPWD Constitution, which they claim was declared legally ineffective by the High Court of Cross River State in a 2023 judgment.
They further contend that the 2008 JONAPWD Constitution registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission remains the valid governing document of the association.
The applicants are therefore asking the Federal High Court to issue an emergency order restraining the planned election pending the determination of the substantive issues before it.
Among the other reliefs sought are a forensic audit of public and international funds allocated to disability affairs, restructuring of disability institutions and the establishment of adequately funded disability implementation structures across Nigeria’s 36 states and 774 local government areas.
Speaking on the case, Lady Omotunde Ellen Thompson, Life-Chairperson of the JONAPWD National Board of Trustees, said the applicants had spent years gathering evidence to support their claims.
“We have been patient for twenty-seven years. We built the record and the clinical studies, the court judgment, the treaty text, and we are asking this Court to apply Nigeria’s own laws to populations the law was always written to protect,” she said.
Also speaking, Chief Eric Ndubueze Ufom, President/CEO of Equal Rights for Persons with Disabilities International, said the case was anchored on the definition of disability adopted under the UN Convention.
“The definition of disability we fought for was deliberately written to include exactly this kind of long-term psychiatric harm,” Ufom said, adding that the case seeks to compel Nigeria to fulfil its obligations under the international treaty.
The applicants argue that excluding people living with long-term trauma from disability-specific protection has implications beyond social welfare, extending to national development, public health and security.
They particularly identified vulnerable groups, including psychologically traumatised Almajiri children, internally displaced persons and combat veterans, as populations requiring appropriate medical care, rehabilitation, protection and representation.
They also maintained that organisations representing persons with disabilities should be directly involved in the design and implementation of government policies and programmes affecting them, citing the principle of “Nothing About Us Without Us” under the UN Convention.
The applicants stressed that the ₦66 trillion being sought is a claim before the court and has not been awarded. They also acknowledged that the allegations concerning JONAPWD’s governance, its constitution and other institutional matters remain subject to judicial determination.
The case will come up again on Wednesday, September 9, 2026, at 9:00 a.m. at Federal Court House 7, Abuja.
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