Beggars, physically-challenged storm Ambode’s office over alleged inhuman treatment

Hundreds of beggars and physically challenged individuals on Monday besieged the governor’s office Ikeja and the Lagos State House of Assembly, protesting an alleged dehumanisation by the state government.

The angry protesters, mostly of northern extraction, barricaded the road leading to the governor’s office, and the State House of Assembly, thus forcing the Governor to seek another route to his office, while returning from an event around 4pm.

Motorists were also prevented from entering or going out of Lagos Government House and the premises of the state House of Assembly.

A nongovernmental organisation (NGO), Justice and Empowerment Initiatives, Nigeria (JEI), which led the protesters, in a letter addressed to the governor and dated 3 March, 2017 requested for an immediate action on the alleged dehumanisation of the physically challenged in the state.

In the letter, which was co-signed by the Co-Executive Director of JEI, Mr Megan S. Chapman and its Staff Attorney, Mr Friday Oteikwu, the group condemned the alleged “inhuman and degrading treatment that persons living with disability were being subjected to at the Lagos State Rehabilitation Centre, Owutu-Majidun in Ikorodu Local Government of Lagos State.”

They stated further in the letter that they were “deeply concerned that the continued harassment, intimidation, extortion, unlawful detention, and cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment of people living with disabilities (PLWDs) at the Lagos State Rehabilitation Centre, Majidun” was inconsistent with the public commitments of Governor Akinwunmi Ambode’s administration.