From Okey Sampson, Umuahia
Disabled persons in the South East under the aegis of Joint National Association of Persons with Disability (JONAPWD), Southeast zone, have called on President Muhammadu Buhari to do everything possible to restore peace to the country.
JONAPWD equally appealed to world bodies like the UN, EU, AU and the USA to assist Nigeria in her quest to return peace to the land.
Speaking when JONAPWD, Southeast zone paid a peace visit to Bishop Sunday Ndukwo Onuoha in Umuahia, Abia State, the Southeast coordinator, Wisdom Okechkwu Kalu said they came to appeal to Bishop Onuoha as a respected man of God and a peace maker, to reach out to the president and other leaders in the country and let them understand the need for peace to reign.
“The purpose of our visit is to appeal to you to use your influence to call for peace and dialogue among the actors in the issues leading to violence and general insecurity in the country.
“We also wish to use the opportunity to appeal to you to use your respectable personality to influence individuals and government to come to the aid of persons with disability as many of us are facing untold hardship in the country at the moment as a result of the economic hardship and rising inflation”.
“On behalf of all the disabled persons in the Southeast, we appeal to you to appeal to President Muhammadu Buhari to do everything within his power to ensure that peace reigns in the country so that we will only suffer disability and not to compound it with insecurity.
“When there is insecurity in the land as we presently have, disabled persons are the most vulnerable. It is on this note that we are calling on President Muhammadu Buhari to ensure that peace reign in the country because we cannot be suffering disability and at the same time suffer from insecurity”.
Representatives of disabled persons in the five states of the Southeast spoke in like manner and called on Bishop Onuoha to take their message to the appropriate quarters.
Responding, the cleric explained that nobody was supporting the burning down of police stations and other public buildings, he however called on security agents to be circumspect in handling the security situation in the South East.
“I do not want to believe that President Muhammadu Buhari has asked security agents to destroy lives, but to rather secure them.
“Those killing policemen and burning down their stations should stop it, those inside the bushes, destroying farm crops, raping women and killing them should also stop it so that peace can reign in the land”.
Bishop Onuoha who noted that peace was the sane quo non in any nation, promised to pass their request across to the appropriate quarters.