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Boko Haram: 700 military personnel lost their limbs, jobs -NCPD

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Not less than 700 military personnel were seriously wounded in the war front while fighting the Boko Haram insurgents in some states of the North which led to the amputations of their limbs and eventual dismissal from the service.

Executive Secretary of the National Commission for Persons with Disabilities, NCPD, James Lalu, who disclosed this in Abuja, however, added that the commission had since integrated them

Speaking during the 2021 budget defence of the NCPD before the Senate Committee on Special Duties, Lalu pleaded for an upward review of the commission’s budget to meet with the increasing demand of its capital budget.

The budget increase, he said would take care of education, healthcare needs and livelihood of people with disabilities, pointing out that a lot of disabled persons take to begging on the streets when they cannot meet with their basic needs.

According to him, there are about 31.5 million Nigerians living with disability, adding that the number keeps increasing every day, especially with the recent challenges facing the nation.

“Recently, we have to integrate about 700 ex-military personnel who had their limbs amputated and eventually dismissed from the service due to the Boko Haram insurgents. We have to provide artificial limbs for them to ensure they are reintegrate back to the society and live a normal life,” he stressed.

Lalu noted that, disability is no more a charity issue, but a developmental one that needs to be properly tackled.

The Executive Secretary warned that failure to address this issue, will place serious burden on the government, which will be grappled with the challenge of giving out stipends that will never achieve any lasting solution.

On the 2021 budget, he said the commission intends to open up zonal, states and local government offices to reach out to all its members living in the rural areas.

In his remarks, chairman of the Senate committee, Senator Yusuf Abubakar Yusuf, urged the commission to create a database of all its members across the country and design empowerment training for them especially those in the rural areas for a positive impact.

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