Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) have called on the federal government to develop a supplementary Petroleum Industry Act(PIA) that ensures their inclusion in the PIA benefit structures.

This appeal was made during a three-day workshop on the PIA and Disability Laws organised by the Centre for Citizens with Disabilities (CCD) in Umuahia.

The workshop was titled “Ending Barriers Against Niger-Deltans with Disabilities (EBAND)” and funded by the Ford Foundation.

The PWDs, who belong to different disability clusters in Abia, channelled their demands to the government through the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC).

The appeal was part of the demand charter for their inclusion in the PIA benefit structures in Abia.

They urged NUPRC to mandate the Host Community Development Trusts (HCDTs) to integrate their needs and voices into the PIA benefit structures.

They noted that the current act recognised women, youths, and traditional rulers but was quiet on issues concerning them.

The PWDs also urged NUPRC to ensure the employment of at least a five per cent allocation for the disability community as stipulated in the National Disability Law.

One of the key provisions of the act is that oil companies must provide three per cent of their annual operating expenditure to fund the HCDTs.

Wisdom Okechukwu, the chairman of the National Association of Persons With Disabilities(JONAPWD), Abia, said the cluster heads of PWDs were unanimous in their demands.

He said that JONAPWD, as the umbrella body of all the PWD organisations in the state, was making a general demand for inclusion in all the structures of benefits in the PIA implementation.

Mr Okechukwu said other stakeholders, such as the oil companies operating in the host communities, the traditional institutions, civil society organisations, the business community, and others, were included in the charter.

In a remark, David Anyaele, chairman of the Abia State Commission for the Welfare of Disabled Persons, pledged the commission’s commitment to ensuring that the PWDs were not shortchanged in the state.

(NAN)