TheCable

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) says it did not exclude people living with disability in its ongoing recruitment process.

Ndu Ughamadu, NNPC group general manager, group public affairs division, disclosed this in an interview with NAN in Abuja on Tuesday.

“We have a corporate policy here and we do employ many of the physically challenged persons in the corporation. We have one with us here at the corporate affairs division,” he said.

“We have them accommodated also in this ongoing recruitment and also under our Corporate Social Responsibility (CSO) we have help a lot of the physically challenged especially in the Niger Delta area.’’

Ughamadu further said that the corporation had been fair to the disabled group and would continue to do so even with the recruitment process.

Godstime Onyegbula, president of the physically challenged applicants, had said the group has been protesting to express non inclusion in the ongoing NNPC recruitment.

“We are here to fight for minimum of five per cent employment opportunity to be given to people living with disability as provided by law,” he said.

“We have written to NNPC several times making them to understand that in the ongoing recruitment we were not included.

“This is because in their form there is no provision to indicate the nature of disabled to be employed.

“Several times we have written to them, no response, sometimes when we come here, we will be embarrassed by the security men. Sometime,  they will chase us always, now we have come in our numbers from the 36 states and FCT.’’

He added that it has become imperative for NNPC to include them as the president has signed into law the Disability Act.

He further noted that most of its member are graduates and some with masters degrees and could do any form of work with support of gadgets.