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People With Disabilities Clash With Police At National Assembly During Protest

December 17, 2020

The group, under the aegis of Great Mind Foundation of Persons with Deformity, Niger Delta, besieged the complex with the view to attend a meeting scheduled with the leadership of National Assembly.

Armed police officers and other security operatives attached to the National Assembly gate, Abuja, have brutalised a group of people living with disabilities, who stormed the complex to protest alleged neglect by the Nigerian government.

The group, under the aegis of Great Mind Foundation of Persons with Deformity, Niger Delta, besieged the complex with the view to attend a meeting scheduled with the leadership of National Assembly.

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But the people were prevented from gaining entry into the complex by the armed policemen which led to an altercation as the protesters dragged the gate with the police.

During this violent encounter, some members of the group were injured while others had their wheelchairs badly damaged.

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Upon gaining entry into the complex, they were received by Senator Sani Abdullahi who asked them to appoint five delegates to meet with the leadership of the Assembly.

The group said they had been abandoned and neglected after series of promises by government officials.

A member, who spoke to SaharaReporters and identified himself as Halliday Samson, said, "The last time, they asked us to send ten representatives to meet with the National Assembly leadership, but our executives were not allowed inside.

"The lawmakers switched off their phones; they said that they had cancelled the meeting.

"Today again, they said they would send a vehicle to convey our executive from the gate for the meeting but getting to the gate, our President made calls to them, but none of them answered, and the security officials stopped us and insisted we could not enter.

"We dragged the gate with them, and that was how we found our way inside."

Some of the leaders of the group were allowed into the complex for the meeting.