Physically Challenged Persons Demand Enogho's ‘Blood’ Over Whereabout Of N15m And Bus Donated To Them

A group of physically challenged persons were engaged in a free-for-all on Monday at the Rivers State secretariat of the Nigeria Union of Journalists over a N15m largesse from the Niger Delta Development Commission, Punch is reporting

The physically challenged persons, who gathered under the aegis of the Niger Delta Coalition of Persons with Disabilities, were briefing newsmen at the secretariat located along Moscow Road in Port Harcourt on how they had been marginalised by government and the NDDC before the fight erupted.

One of them, Friday Utobo, from Delta State, who appeared to be the leader of a faction of the group, had stormed the hall where the press briefing was held and slapped the President of NIDECOP, Mr. David Enogho.

Some of Utobo’s supporters, who also entered the conference hall, began to exchange blows with some executive members of the physically challenged group.

Efforts made by the state NUJ Chairman, Mr. Omoni Ayo-Tamuno, to stop the aggressive physically challenged persons from fighting did not yield any result.

Also, threats by Ayo-Tamuno to invite the police to the secretariat did not scare the intruders as they vowed to “spill Enogho’s blood” for refusing to release and share the N15m NDDC largesse.

Speaking with PUNCH Metro, one of the aggrieved physically challenged persons, who identified himself as Jacob Ikegima, said apart from the N15m largesse that had not been released, the NDDC also gave the group a brand new bus, adding that none of the executives of the coalition had been able to tell members the whereabouts of the bus.

Ikegima said, “The NDDC gave us N15m and a coaster bus on December 3, 2014 to mark the World Disabled Day. Up till now, David (Enogho) has not told us where he kept the money and the bus.

“We want him to bring out the money so that members can benefit from it. If not, we are ready to fight and die here today.

Reacting, Enogho, who was still shocked by the action of some members of the group, denied the allegations levelled against him, adding that though the NDDC gave them a bus, the commission did not give the coalition N15m.

According to the NIDECOP president, those that attacked him inside the state NUJ secretariat had been sending threat text messages to him after attacking him at the front of the police station on Abacha Road, in Port Harcourt.

On the coaster bus, Enogho explained that the executive members of the group were already looking for an organisation to take it on lease in order to raise money for members’ welfare.

Enogho disclosed that his attackers were aggrieved because he refused to accede to their demand that the bus should be sold and the money shared among the few of them.

However, the angry physically challenged persons, who waited on the premises of the state NUJ secretariat for several hours, were later invited by the state police command with a view to resolving the matter amicably.

Punch