Ho Federation of Disabled to sue Ho Municipal Assembly

Ho, April 16, GNA - Members of the Ghana Federation of Disabled in Ho are threatening court action against the Ho Municipal Assembly over disability unfriendly public facilities.

'We want to test the Disability Law in Ghana. The Law is there but they don't respect it because we are in the minority,' Mr Alex Korsi Akpo, President of the Federation said.

Mr Akpo gave the hint at a Social Public Expenditure and Financial Accountability forum in Ho on Wednesday.

The forum, under the Local Government Capacity Support Project, was organised by Community Development Concern, a Ho-based non-governmental organisation.

Mr Akpo said members of the Federation are not happy with the construction of public structures in the Municipality without regard for disability friendly facilities, hence the need to test the law.

He alleged that the Assembly was evasive in allowing the Federation the opportunity to study the design for the reconstruction of the Ho Market and expressed fear that the infrastructure, just like two other newly built markets in the town would lack disability friendly facilities.

'Some officials from the Assembly told us that the new market is disability friendly but we want to study the design ourselves. We had similar experiences in the past and when the project was completed, those facilities were not included and we don't want this to happen again,' Mr Akpo said.

He said members of the Federation could not access the Civic Centre Shopping mall neither could they shop at Ahoe Market because those facilities built two years ago lacked disability friendly facilities.

Mr Akpo alleged that children living with disability could also not access facilities in some newly built public schools in the Municipality.

Alhaji Abdulai Gafaru, Internal Auditor for the Assembly, in a presentation challenged civil society organisations in the Municipality to track the Assembly's budget to ensure financial discipline in the Assembly.

Disability ACT 2006, ACT 715(7) states that a person who provides any service to the public shall put in place the necessary facilities that make the service available and accessible to a person with disability.

ACT715(8) says a person who contravenes the provision or commits an offence is liable to a fine not exceeding 50 penalty units or to a term of imprisonment not exceeding three months or both.

GNA