By Emem Idio

YENAGOA—DISABLED persons under the aegis of Persons Living with Disabilities, PLWD, in Bayelsa State  have given the National Directorate of Employment, NDE, a two-week proviso to  formally commence procedures of including them in the Community Service Scheme of the  Federal Government’s Subsidy Reinvestment Programme, SURE-P or face violent outburst.

The physically-challenged persons, including men and women, who staged a peaceful protest to NDE office, Yenagoa, said they played a key role during the controversy that greeted the removal of fuel subsidy in 2012 by engaging in public demonstrations, asking why none of them  benefited from the over 30,000 recruitment in the state since 2013.

Ventilating the grievances of the protesters, chairman of the Joint Association of Persons Living with Disabilities in the state, Mr. Isaac Stephen, said the group had carried out two separate peaceful protests in the past over the matter and urged the state SURE-P coordinator to include them unconditionally in the programme.

His words: “If there is no way, after two weeks, we will come back with a larger number. If they had given us any time frame, it would have been better but there is no time frame that is why we are giving our own time.

“When next we will come, it will not be in this kind of peaceful atmosphere, it will be more riotous. You can see that this one is peaceful because we have not done any destruction in this place, we have not torn any documents here to express our anger.” Bayelsa Coordinator of NDE, who also doubles as Vice Chairman, State Coordination and Implementation of SURE-P, Mr. Sunday Apakasa, commended them for their peaceful disposition.

He revealed that the previous recruitment for the first phase of the SURE-P Community Service Scheme was 3,000 and that another phase, which will entail general recruitment of more 20,000 persons would commence around December. While suing for patience, Apakasa assured that they would be considered. He also urged community leaders to ensure even distribution of slots in the next recruitment exercise.