The Centre for Citizens with Disabilities ,CCD, has paid an advocacy visit to the office of the Lagos State Ministry of Justice at Alausa, Ikeja.
The visit was part of activities of the project on Enhancing Access to Justice, Democratic Governance, and Promoting Political Participation for Persons with Disabilities ,PWDs, with support from Voice Nigeria and Enhancing Civic Space and Disability Rights for PWDs.
The interim Head of CCD, Mrs Florence Austin, led the visit on Wednesday and met with Mrs Adetutu Oshinusi, the Director of Directorate for Citizens Right of the Ministry, a statement by CCD said on Friday.
Austin said that PWDs were daily faced with challenges which included brutality and harassment, and said that the civic space was shrinking for PWDS.
She advocated that the indices be improved upon as PWDS were also bona fide citizens of the country.
Ms Christiana Njoku of CCD, presented some of the challenges PWDs faced in accessing justice.
She, on behalf of CCD, said there was need to promote, enhance, and ensure that PWDs contribute significantly to an equitable society for all, including PWDs.
Oshinusi commended the Centre for the good work and responded that the ministry gave legal representation to clients when required, especially cases that bridge fundamental human rights among others.
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she mentioned that the Ministry of Justice is the Executive arm of government, which implements the laws in the state.
She said that there were other agencies established by the government that promote and protect the rights of the citizens that are being infringed upon. hat such agencies included the Citizens Mediation Centre, Consumer Protection Agency, Community Centre, Public Advocacy Centre, and Office of the Public Defender.
She said: “If PWDs are stigmatised or discriminated upon, they can come and report at our office or any of the office, and as an OPD, we can also refer PWDs to come to their office’’.
On awareness, she said the ministry had done a lot of awareness programmes on radio jingles, and interviews.
Speaking of the inaccessibility of their office to PWDs, she said they usually went downstairs to meet with the PWDs and if, for instance, a person with hearing impairment comes to the office, they could write down the complaints or they send to The Lagos State Office for Disability Affairs ,LASODA, for an interpreter.
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