National Council on Persons with Disability demands apology

Accra, June 2, GNA - The National Council on Persons with Disability (NCPD) on Thursday asked Mr Michael Teye Nyaunu, Member of Parliament for Lower Manya Krobo, to retract an insulting comment on President Mills to wi= t "he can't read" and offer an unqualified apology.

The Council said the apology should not only be made to the disabled community of Ghana but also the entire polity and that it also reserved the right to invoke any part of the Disability Act to seek redress. A statement issued in Accra by Mr Andrew Okai Koi, Chairman of NCPD, said: 93The MP's comment which was meant to ridicule President John Evan= s Atta Mills in order to gain political advantage is not only in bad taste generally, but an insult to the entire disabled community in Ghana."

It said the Disability Bill was passed into law in August 2006 and precludes the use of disability as a derogatory reference to any person in Ghana, while it also outlaws discrimination on grounds of disability.

"For persons who wish to remain abreast of civil conduct and decorum= , defective eyesight does not mean a defective brain, of course, there are many whose eye sights are perfect but their brains are 91blind' while so= me brail users remain the most intelligent persons in the world," the statem= ent said.