Street Hawking: FCTA, NCPWD join hands to secure trading spaces for PwDs

The National Commission for Persons with Disabilities (NCPWD) is set to collaborate with the FCT Administration to secure commercial spaces for Persons with Disabilities (PwDs) to conduct their lawful trade.

Executive Secretary of the NCPWD, James Lalu, announced this during a meeting with the leadership of the Self-Reliance for Physically Challenged Traders Association of Nigeria (SPCTAN), led by their Chairman, Mr Munnir Shehu in Abuja, News Agency of Nigeria reported.

According to reports, the delegation visited the commission to express their concerns regarding the disruption of their business by the joint task force and submitted a letter of appeal to the Executive Secretary for onward delivery to the FCT Minister.

The NCPWD executive secretary assured the visitor of his determination to support their course to ensure that they have a decent means of livelihood.

• ”I thank you for standing by what we always say that disability is not inability. Go out and do legitimate business to earn a living. Never find excuses for your disability.
• “’ I want to assure you that the complaint you bring about the disruption of your businesses will be presented to the Minister of FCT, Mr Nyesom Wike.
• ”We will make sure that alternative means are provided for you to continue your legitimate business,” Lalu said.

More insight

Shehu, the Chairman of the association, mentioned that they have a significant number of members, with at least 293 individuals engaged in legitimate businesses in the FCT.

He appealed to the FCT Administration to provide them with shops to enable them to conduct their businesses more decently and securely.

This appeal arises from the need to move their activities off the streets to prevent further harassment and confrontations with the members of the environmental joint task force in the city.

• ”We have been put out of business for the past three to four weeks now, we don’t go to our business places.
• ”We got to know that this was very serious when ‘The FCTA Environmental Taskforce arrested one of our members, took him to SARS and we went to bail him.
• ” It touched us because we are all human beings, we don’t engage in street begging.
• ”We are doing our legitimate business and some of you who go around Berger, Bannex, and other places will see us doing our legitimate business.
• ” Some of us earn N500 to N1,000 as gain daily and use it to sustain ourselves,” he said.