By Emma Elekwa
Persons With Disabilities (PWDs) in Anambra State have expressed joy over the assurances by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to give them special attention on Election Day.
The State Chairman of the Joint National Association of Persons With Disabilities (JONAPWD), Ugochukwu Okeke, spoke at a validation exercise organised in collaboration with Rule of Law and Anti-Corruption (RoLAC) and the European Union (EU) on the Drafted Abridged Version (Pidgin and Igbo) of Anambra Disability Rights Law (2018).
He said: “We’ve taken the advocacy to several institutions, including the INEC, on how important access to facilities is to us. We’re happy they’re complying. INEC has assured us that priority attention will be given to PWDs and the aged during elections. We also requested they carve out a queue for us to cast our votes as fast as possible.
“They also assured us that they have carried out accessibility audit on most of the polling units to ensure all are compliant. Those that are not, they promised to bring out the polling units to guarantee access to our members to cast their votes.
“We’re also planning to engage the Ministry of Education due to the number of schools being used for the exercise, such that when they are building schools, they’ll factor in PWDs.”
Okeke urged members of the group not to panic over prevailing security situation in the state.
“We’ve resolved among ourselves that our votes must surely count this time round. We’ve been encouraging our members to go out and vote. I don’t think we’re going to be discouraged by the prevailing situation.
“We know government is doing everything humanly possible to ensure provision of tight security on Election Day. We’re also sensitising our members on certain security measures so they can be guided.
Rule of Law and Anti-Corruption (RoLAC) State Coordinator Josephine Onah said the organisation was not only involved in translating the abridged version of the Disability Rights Law into Pidgin and Igbo languages but was also training sign language interpreters on legal terminologies.