Don’t hide under disability to commit crime – JONAPWD Legal Adviser tells PWDs

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Legal Adviser to Joint National Association of Persons with Disabilities (JONAPWD), Anambra State Chapter, Bar. Peter Muoneke has warned Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) against taking advantage of their disabilities to commit crimes.

He said disability of any form was not a license for any individual to indulge in crimes or criminality.

Moneke made the submission in Awka during a paper presentation on Anambra State Disability Rights Law 2018, at an awareness workshop with opinion leaders and PWDs cluster heads.

The legal practitioner was particularly responding to a questions on alleged assault of a crippled by a soldier in Onitsha years ago for adorning in army camouflage.

He said, “The law doesn’t exempt Persons with Disabilities from prosecution as far as he or she is found guilty. Disability is not a ticket to commit crime. If any of us is found guilty of any crime, security agencies will do the needful.

“Yes, the man was wrong by wearing an army camouflage. But the soldier was also wrong by assaulting him and taking his wheelchair from him.

“What he would have done was to arrest him and taken him to appropriate authorities for possible prosecution,” he explained.

Also speaking, State Chairman, JONAPWD, Comrade Ugochukwu Okeke decried inhumane treatment being metted on his members, especially at the Correctional Centres in the state.

He said members of his group who use wheelchairs and clutches were not allowed entry into Correctional facilities by the management who refer to such aides as weapons.

“Yes, I’m not justifying crimes committed by persons with disabilities. But I don’t think taking away their wheelchairs and clutches from them because they are seen as weapons, thereby compelling them to crawl on the bare floor is right either.

“Something urgently needs to be done about that trend,” he said.

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