Court Tasks Jonathan, NASS On Disabilities Law

The Federal High Court in
Lagos has directed President Goodluck Jonathan and the National Assembly to produce any law which protects the rights of person with disabilities.
A physically challenged lawyer, Mr. Daniel Onwe, is seeking an order mandating them to enact forthwith  the necessary laws to protect persons with disabilities.
Onwe, in the suit numbered FHC/L/CS/1766/13, claimed  that the non-existence of any federal disability legislation violated the fundamental rights of over 20 million people with disabilities.
The respondents, in their  counter affidavit, said contrary to onwe’s claim, there exists a law which protects the rights of persons with disabilities.
Onwe said the law, if indeed it truly exists, should  be exhibited before the court. He prayed Justice Mohammed Yunusa to direct the respondents to produce the law.
The judge directed counsel for the respondents, Mrs Uzoamaka Onugu, to produce the gazette copy of the law at the  next adjourned date.
Onwe also adopted his written address on the issue of whether he can sit in the bar and  argue his case a both the litigant and lawyer.
Justice Yunusa had urged counsel to address the court on  the property of Onwe representing himself from the bar fully robed. He will rule on their submission on December 19.
Onwe, a notary public, prayed the court to hold that the inaccessibility of public building and the environment to  persons with disability as a result of architectural barriers violated their freedom of movement, freedom of association and the right to dignity of human person.
Besides, he said the non-use of sign language at national public function and on national television programmes was a violation of the freedom of expression of person with hearing disability (the deaf)  guaranteed under section 39 of the constitution.
In a supporting affidavit to the fundamental rights action, Onwe said he was suing as a person with a physical disability having suffered polio myehtis at the age of one, which had left him with partial  paralysis and deformity of the lower limbs.
The said he had been dependent on crutches to move about and was impeded by architectural  barriers in public buildings, such as the Federal High Court.
The lawyer said there abound other persons with physical challenges, such as visual, speech, hearing  and intellectual disabilities, adding that the  2011 World Disability Report  states that persons with disabilities constitute about 15 per cent of the population of each country of the world.