The Ogun disability community has made a passionate appeal to Governor Dapo Abiodun to respect and recognise their rights in the state’s scheme of things.

Abdulwahab Matepo, interim national president, Spinal Cord Injuries Association of Nigeria (SCIAN), stated this while addressing journalists on behalf of the community in Abeokuta on Tuesday.

Mr Matepo said the state was too enlightened to allow more than 15 per cent of its population with disabilities to continue living in exclusion.

Therefore, he made non-negotiable demands on the state government, such as the urgent reenactment and gazetting of the disability law.

Other demands, he said, include the immediate establishment and activation of the Ogun State Disability Commission and inclusion of a dedicated budget line for disability affairs in the 2026 appropriation bill.

“Ogun State is too enlightened, too educated, too blessed and too advanced to allow more than 15 per cent of the state population with disabilities to continue living in exclusion.

“It is not pleasant to hear that Ogun State is among the handful of states without a disability law.

“We are pleading, but we are not begging for pity.

“We are asking for our rights, for justice, for equity and for inclusion guaranteed by a disability law,” he said.

The interim national president recalled that the state’s immediate past administration signed a law to guarantee the rights and dignity of persons with disabilities.

He, however, noted that while the Amosun-led government should have gazetted the law and made it operational, nothing was done before he left office.

“The present administration has less than two years left in office, but it has not thought it fit to either gazette the Amosun law or amend it.

“Every year, we are told to exercise patience, yet every day we continue to face discrimination, exclusion and indignity.

“We have waited long enough, and we do not want to start all over again when another administration takes over.

“This news conference is to inform the general public about the efforts being made by the disability community in Ogun State to enjoy its universally guaranteed disability rights,” he said.

(NAN)