Blind Graduates Storm Imo Goverment House, Demand Jobs

Scores of visually-impaired graduates and students on Monday protested against government’s failure to pay bursary and provide jobs, blocking the main gate to the Imo State Government House in Owerri to air their grievances .

The protesters, who alleged marginalization by the Governor Rochas Okorocha-led administration, said the government was treating them “like strangers in our own state.”

Displaying placards with various inscriptions which depicted their grievances, the blind protesters demanded an end to what they tagged deliberate abandonment and marginalization by the government .

The demonstrators, who assembled under the aegis of the Nigerian Association of the Blind, Imo State chapter, called on Okorocha to be responsive to their demands. They vowed not to leave the gate to the government house until the governor addressed them .

Apart from the demand for special job opportunities for blind graduates in the state, the protesters equally demanded the immediate release of accumulated seven-year subvention arrears and bursary allowances for blind students in higher institutions .