The Governor of Ekiti State, Mr Ayodele Fayose, said on Tuesday that all persons with one disability or the other in the state, especially the literate ones, will henceforth enjoy priority attention of the government.
The Governor spoke at a ceremony marking his 56th birthday at the Government House in Ado Ekiti.
He said he deliberately chose to mark the day with the persons with disability from across the 16 local governments because of his passion for the downtrodden and the disadvantaged in the society.
“I feel fulfilled celebrating the day with them, believing that such a development would instill hope in the hopeless,” he told reporters.
According to him, every member of the society must be given equal opportunity and be made accessible to government’s facilities.
Consequently, he announced that persons with disabilities will be included on the protocol list of the government while invitations to public functions would be extended to them through their various associations.
Governor Fayose said the special gestures would include adequate funding of schools for the handicapped, provision of pensionable employment, offer of political appointment as well as inclusion of a reasonable number of them on the list of those to be paid monthly stipend under the Social Security Programme of the state.
Earlier in an address, the state chapter chairman of National Association of Persons with Disabilities, Mr Omotola Ezekiel, expressed gratitude to the Governor for lifting the gates of the Government House for his members to have unfettered access.
He disclosed that though a total of 10 persons with disabilities had so far been employed by the Fayose administration, more still needed to be done, as no fewer than 500 members with NCE certificate and over 1,000 below NCE were still yearning for gainful employment in the state.