The Inspector General of Police, Usman Alkali-Baba has said concerted efforts have been put in place to ensure there is a cordial relationship between the police and the disability community.
This is as he said he had ordered his men to promptly attend to cases involving Persons with Disabilities.
The IGP stated these on Thursday in Abuja at a three-day Disability Stakeholders Forum organised by the Centre for Citizens with Disabilities.
Alkali-Baba, represented by Deputy Commissioner of Police Administration, Aina Adesola, said the police were working to meet the five per cent employment reservation for Persons With Disabilities in accordance with the provisions of the National Disability Law.
He noted that the present administration of the police was disability-friendly and working to enhance police relations with the PwD community in Nigeria.
The police boss said, “I am very sure that the present administration has done and is doing almost everything to make sure that there is a cordial relationship between the police and the disability community.
“There is a standing instruction in every command that the police act swiftly to the contacts from the disability community, especially with regards to complaints.
“And as regards the employment of disabled people, it is relative and I am very sure that there are disabled people in the Nigeria Police, though they may not be in operations.
“But in other departments because of the disability which is relative because it is not that we have to take them from all clusters of disabilities.
“Like the blind, and the physically challenged, however, there are many people with disabilities and the force is working to fully implement and execute the five per cent empowerment reservation for PWDs.”
This development comes over a month after The PUNCH published an undercover report on the neglect, frustration, and discrimination Persons With Disabilities encounter in their pursuit of justice in the country.
In the report titled, “For PWDs in Nigeria, the road to justice remains tortuous, costly (1 and 2)”, our correspondent after learning basic sign language visited police stations across the country pretending to be deaf and found out that the administration of justice in Nigeria is discriminatory against PwDs.
The report also chronicled how the lackadaisical attitude of policemen as well as inability to effectively handle cases involving PwDs.
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