Gov. Seyi Makinde

Gbenro Adesina/Ibadan

The Commissioner for Women Affairs and Social Inclusion in Oyo State, Alhaja Faosat Sanni has said parents who have children with certain disabilities should not turn the children to instrument of begging but make use of government institutions where these special children would be useful to themselves and society.

The State government recently declared that street begging and other forms of abuse to the vulnerable such as rape of minors and human trafficking would soon be history as perpetrators of such evil acts are to face the full wrath of the law.

Saani made this declaration during a visit to the Nigeria Training Centre for the Blind, Ogbomoso, home for the visually impaired at the weekend.

The Commissioner, who was represented by the Permanent Secretary, Mrs Christiana Abioye said disability should not be a reason for street begging, adding that rape cases of minors and human trafficking have been on the increase due to negligence by parents, guardians and caregivers.

The centre, which was established in 1968, has trained many visually impaired persons on various vocational training programs such as bead making, production of footmat, bags, soap making, braille & typing courses among whom was the Executive Assistant to Governor Seyi Makinde on Disability Matters, Barrister Ayodele Adekanmbi.

Assuring the institution of more support from the governor in the areas of education, health, provision of basic amenities and many more, Sanni encouraged the students to always show the world that there was ability in disability, by competing with their able bodied counterparts to achieve more in life.

She said, “The school is for the people with visual impairment and the state government has been encouraging parents to train their wards and not to isolate them from their peers as most of them are partially impaired while some are totally blind. Instead of using them as instrument of begging by taking them to the market place, they should take these children to these institutions so they can learn what will benefit them, their parents and the society. The Executive Assistant to the governor on disability matters is making lots of efforts to ensure that we have ramps in all our public places, malls, banks and parks for our special friends to have access to social amenities and not to be neglected”.