Some persons with disabilities back Bagbin
A group of persons with disabilities have thrown their support to Mr Alban Kingsford Sulemana Bagbin saying he is not a hater of their kind.
“We want to make it clear to those who are intentionally putting a spotlight on persons with disabilities for political propaganda that we know that it is they that are our enemies and not Mr Bagbin,” Mr. Richard Offei, a person with disability has said.
Speaking in a News conference in Accra, some over hundred persons with disabilities made it clear that they were insulted by people who were claiming that Bagbin hated them, because of his observations about a former visually impaired Minister.
Flanked by another person with disabilities, Godwin Amosah, Mr Offei who is also the President of Richoff Disability Sports and Education Foundation, said the propaganda is, “a very shameful untruth.”
According to him, Mr Bagbin was on the contrary, “a very good friend of persons with disabilities in this country because, unlike those who only run their mouths about disability issues, Mr Bagbin actually comes down to help us.”
The comments were in response to on-going controversies that shot up after Mr Bagbin’s Volta Regional tour to announce his readiness to contest for the slot of the NDC Presidential candidate.
They added that Mr Bagbin’s comments were purposefully twisted to create the impression that the Nadowli-Kaleo MP hated persons with disabilities.
Mr Bagbin had observed during a recent campaign tour of the Volta region that his party, the National Democratic Congress (NDC)’s massive loss in the 2016 election had been partly due to the fact that former President Mahama made some wrong appointments including; the placement of Dr Seidu Danaa, a visually challenged man as the Minister for Chieftaincy and Culture.
He pointed out that because of an age-old culture in Ghana that disallowed chiefs from associating with disabled persons, the appointment had courted anger from Ghanaian chiefs.
The Nadowli-Kaleo MP also observed that President Mahama meant well with his appointment of Dr. Danaa who was richly qualified to head any Ministry, but the placement of the man at the Chieftaincy Ministry was a miscalculation because of the cultural implication.
“As persons with disabilities, we do not see how Mr Bagbin showed disrespect towards us in anyway. If anything, he actually helped to shine light on our plight in this country,” Richard Offei said.
He said he knew Mr Bagbin on a personal level and that the Nadowli-Kaleo MP was one of the few MPs that persons with disabilities freely approached for help with pro-disability legislations in the Legislature.
He said his foundation, Richoff Foundation, had received a lot of personal support from the leading NDC flagbearer hopeful.
On his part, Godwin Amosah said those carrying out the propaganda were rather doing a lot of disservice to persons with disabilities because their actions were stirring up some old stereotypes against them.
“They are taking us back to those days when persons with disabilities were regarded as failures and a burden to society. We don’t want that, so they should please stop!”
He said they knew who Mr Bagbin was to them, pointing out that it was not for nothing that many of them attended Bagbin’s News conference to clarify issues on Tuesday.
Mr Amosah urged persons with disability not to allow themselves to be manipulated against the respected Second Deputy Speaker, A.S.K Bagbin.
Source: GNA