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FACT SHEET ON THE LAGOS STATE SPECIAL PEOPLE’S LAW, 2011

Distilled from the Lagos State Special People’s Law, 2011 for LCSDPP
By: Daniel Onwe, Esq. AND Adebukola S Adebayo (Ph.D)

WHAT YOU MUST KNOW IN THE LAGOS STATE SPECIAL PEOPLE’S LAW, 2011


 The Lagos State Special People’s Law is a law to protect persons with different forms of disabilities in Lagos State.
 It is now an offence for any person or institution to discriminate against a person with disability in any manner or circumstance whatsoever (section 21).
 It is an offence to subject persons with disability to prejudice or harmful practices (section 21(2)).
 Companies having dealings with the public shall have among their staff trained persons to attend their customers who are persons with disabilities (Section 13)
 Organizers of public functions like parties, weddings, seminars etc. shall provide competent persons to attend to person with disabilities in attendance at such functions (section 14).
 Every public transport service shall be made accessible and easy to be used by persons with disabilities (section 18(1)).
 At least 1 out of every 10 seats in commercial vehicles shall always be reserved for persons with disabilities (section 18(2)).
 In assigning seats to persons with disability in vehicles their comfort and safety shall always be considered (section 19).
 A portion of every parking lot shall be marked and reserved for persons with disabilities (section 20(1)).
 Persons in charge of any parking lot who fail to reserve a portion for person with disability shall be liable to a fine of N100,000 (one hundred thousand naira) for each day of default (section 20(3)) .
 It is an offence for any person who is not a person with disability to obstruct, or park a vehicle in, a parking portion reserved for persons with disability (section 20 (4) and (5)).
 The office of the Public Defender shall offer free legal services to person with disability (section 21 (4)).
 It is an offence punishable with imprisonment to use any person with disability in begging for alms (section 22(2)).
 It is unlawful to construct any public or commercial building or roads that are not accessible to persons with disability (section 24).
 Landlords shall allow their tenants with disability to construct facilities that will ease their access to their apartments in the premises (24(3)).
 As from 2016, all public buildings in Lagos shall be accessible to persons with disability (section 25 (5)).
 Town Planning Authority shall not approve public building plans that do not provide for facilities for access of persons with disability (24(6)).
 At queues, persons with disability shall, as much as possible, be attended to first (section 25).
 Government, Parents and guardians of children with disability shall ensure that such children are free from all forms of neglect, exploitation or abuse (section 26).
 Parents and guardians of children with disability shall make sure that such children are educated to the completion of secondary school (section 26(4)).
 Persons with disability shall be entitled to free tuition at all levels in all public institutions in Lagos State.
 All schools in Lagos State shall be run to be accessible to persons with disability (section 28).
 Children with disability shall be entitled to equal rights, treatment, recreation, maintenance and training with other children of the family (section 26 (5)).
 It is an offence to conceal, abandon, neglect or segregate any child on the basis of his or her disability (section 26(6)).
 Person with disability shall be entitled to free medical and health care in all Lagos State health institutions (section 27(2)).
 The curriculum of every school in Lagos State shall include learning of sign language and Braille (section 28(7)).
 All employers of labour having staff strength of 100 persons shall have at least 10 per cent of such staff consisting of qualified and competent persons with disability (section 29(5)).
 No employee shall be relieved of his employment on the account of disability sustained during such employment without adequate compensation (section 29).
 Persons with disability shall have the right to drive vehicles with the necessary modifications (section 31).
 There shall be an establishment known as the Office of Disability Affairs (ODA) to oversee the implementation of the Lagos State Special People Law.

ABOUT LCSDPP

The LCSDPP, which is currently partnering with the Directorate for Rehabilitation, Lagos State Ministry of Youths, Sports and Social Development, other MDAs of the Lagos State Government, and a cross section of the media, is constituted by expert CSOs and individuals working on disability issues in Lagos state and is facilitated by DFID’s State Accountability and Voice Initiative (SAVI) programme. Our broad objective is to promote the adoption of the social model of disability in the processes of policy development, implementation and evaluation in Lagos state with a view to guarantee justice, equity and participation for people with disabilities (PWDs).

(LCSDPP)
C/O, DFID/SAVI Office: No. 9, Sadiku Street, Off Amara Olu Street, Agidingbi, Ikeja, Lagos
TEL: 08028974873, 08039472763. E-mail: lcsdpp.lagos@gmail.com