By Festus Zenda.
The National Commission for Persons with Disabilities (NCPWD), in partnership with the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management, has trained persons with disabilities on data capturing of 50,000 PWDs in preparation for the first batch conditional cash transfer initiative of the Federal Government to cushion the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the populace.
The opening event, which held Thursday 5 August at Excel Hotel, Garki 2, Abuja, had in attendance PWDs participants from across the six geopolitical zones of the country.
Hon. Jaja Oparaku, member of the board representing South East zone, in a goodwill message to the audience tasked participants to make team work and excellent service priorities in order to ensure peace and justice within the disability community.
Okparaku also commended President Muhammadu Buhari for the establishment of a National Disability Commission. He thanked the heads and management of the ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management for their efforts.
Mrs Esther Andrew Awu, representing North Central zone, while addressing the gathering acknowledged that there will be pockets of challenges along the way. She therefore urged participants to be professional in the discharge of their duties. She advised participants to shun favoritism and discrimination while making efforts to carry everyone along. She further reminded participants that quality and excellent data capturing is what we want.
The Executive Secretary of the commission, Mr James Lalu, in his speech, appreciated the Minster for Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management, Sadiya Umar Farouq. Lalu stressed that data collection of PWDs should be handled by PWDs themselves.
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According to him, “it’s we the PWDs that knows ourselves and know where each of us stays. He charged participants to employ honesty, and dedication in discharging their duties.
Going further, Lalu warned of dire consequences for offenders who abuse their positions, especially those demanding payments for data collation. He said such persons, when caught, would face the full wrath of law. Also, there will be stiff penalties for favouritism to family members and relatives in the exercise.
The ES charged data collection officials to ensure percentage allotted to each State is completed before the deadline as failure would result in the uncompleted percentage being handed to another State.
James tasked participants on rendering excellent services. He notified that each State representative will be given a letter to deliver to the State Government.
He encouraged the participants: “ feel free to contact our situation room at the Commission for assistance whenever you have challenges in discharging your duties”.