The Centre for Citizens with Disabilities, a Non-Governmental Organisation, has urged National Commission for Persons with Disabilities to investigate an alleged discrimination against a Person Living with Disabilities by Dana Airlines.
David Anyaele, the Executive Director of CCD, said this on Wednesday in a statement in Abuja.
Anyaele said the denial of access to a wheelchair PLWD passenger by the airline was against the provisions of the Discrimination Against Persons with Disabilities Prohibition Act 2018.
He said: “The acclaimed new policy of the airline is a violation of Section 1 of the Act which states-that a person with disabilities shall not be discriminated against on the ground of his disabilities, by any person or institution in any manner or circumstance, whatsoever.
“The December 20 experience of Dr Chike Okogwu who was not allowed by the airline to board its flight from Abuja to Lagos because he was on a wheelchair speaks volumes.
“The company’s new policy which prohibits wheelchair users from boarding its aircraft is only a new pattern of discrimination against citizens with disabilities that should not be allowed in the aviation industry in Nigeria.”
Anyaele also called on the leadership of the NCPWD to investigate increasing rate of human rights violations against citizens with disabilities by airline operators in Nigeria with the view to bringing perpetrators to book.
He also urged the Ministry of Aviation to implement Section 14:2 of the Disability Act which provided that all airports shall have functional assistive and protective devices for the conveyance of PLWDs who needed presentable and functional assistive and protective devices to and from aircraft.
He said: “We need accessible airports with mobile wheelchair lifters in all airports across the country for easy access to and from aircraft, as more than 95 per cent of the airports in Nigeria are not accessible to PLWDs.
“We are also requesting for the urgent intervention of the leadership of the National Assembly, particularly the House of Representatives Committee on Disability Matters; through oversight functions to ensure easy access to airport for PLWDs.
“This is in tandem with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) which mandates state parties in Article 5 to prohibit all discrimination on the basis of disability and guarantee to PLWDs equal and effective legal protection against discrimination on all.
“Nigeria is a signatory to the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) including its optional protocols.
“The obnoxious Dana Airline policy is a total violation of all the laws Nigeria is signatory to.”