The state Chairman People Living with Disabilities in Ebonyi state Mr Franklin Odumegwu have pleaded to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to end the marginalization of people with disabilities, according to him, that has often not taken into account in electoral and other national exercises. He stressed that there were professionals and many enlightened persons among them who were capable of contributing immensely to the success of such national programmes.
Expressing the pain the PWDs past through, Odumegwu called on the INEC to include their members in the ad-hoc personnel for the presidential and Gubernatorial exercise.
Odumegwu who made the appeal at Onueke, the Ezza South Local Government area headquarters during a Stakeholders zonal Town Hall meeting, voter education outreaches for Marginalized groups and other electorates for Ebonyi Central Senatorial district also called on Government and other stakeholders to provide transportation facilities to enable their members to move to their various polling units so as not to disenfranchise them.
The meeting which was part of the on-going campaign for tension-free elections, an initiative of the Development and Integrity Intervention Goal Foundation in collaboration with INEC under the Civil Society Situation Room, powered by the United Kingdom Department for International Development (DFID).
He further beckoned on government and other well-meaning individuals to assist PWDs within their areas to access voting centres so as to cast their votes during the elections devoid of discrimination.
He expressed hope that INEC’s assurances of a tension-free election would be realised so as to provide their members with the required safe environment to participate in the elections, adding that most of the PWDs depend on the goodwill of the government and other citizens.
Odumegwu stressed: “I am expecting the government and INEC to involve people with disabilities in the ad-hoc staff for the forthcoming election
“The greatest challenge we are having is mobility because, without mobility, we cannot move to the various centres to vote.
“Most of us do not have Wheelchairs. So we want the government to provide them wheelchairs so that it can help them move to the polling units.
“Most often, the people living with disabilities are regarded as not part of the exercise but many of us are professionals: doctors, Lawyers, Engineers etc.
“Even after elections, they always abandoned us.
“But my appeal is that they should include us in whatever they are doing because some of us can do it better than them.
“So I am calling on Government to help us.
“Some of us are not doing anything.
“Some are beggars and without them, we can do nothing.”
The Resident Electoral Commissioner in the State, Prof. Goodwill Obioma in his remarks noted that INEC’s Partnership with DIG has so far yielded tremendous results in mobilizing stakeholders towards all-inclusive and tension – free elections.
Obioma represented by INEC Legal Officer, Ibrahim Obiahu, however, noted that more still needed to be done by stakeholders in transmitting the efforts to the grassroots, adding that INEC adjusted voting procedures to accommodate all categories of electorates.
He, however, called on Media houses to treat all candidates equally in terms of allocation of spaces and time for jingles and other forms of publicity in their mediums irrespective of parties, stressing that failure to adhere to that tantamounts to an electoral offence punishable under section 100 of the Electoral Law.
The Electoral officer for Ikwo Local government area, Shedrack Offor and his Ezza South counterpart, Nkem Okoroafor, advised electorate, especially the vulnerable groups to take advantage of the present transformations brought into the process by INEC to actively get involved.
They further called on stakeholders to intensify mobilization on the need for electorates to collect their voter cards which they observed had remained a great challenge.
According to Mrs Okoroafor, out of the total PVC of 23, 676 in Ezza South, only 11, 383 have been collected leaving a balance of 12, 293.
For Ikwo with the total registered voters of 151, 703 and total received PVC of 39, 842 against 2019 elections, 18, 834 have been collected while 21, 008 remained undistributed as at date.
Mr Offer added that the Commission in Ikwo Local government area has so far received a total of 987 ad-hoc staff to be trained for the elections, including 278 National Youth Corps members.
While setting the tone for the meeting, the Executive Director of DIG, Oliver Aja Chima maintained that there was the need for all and sundries to eschew hate speeches, vote buying and other vices militating against free and fair elections in Nigeria.
He Added: “Men and women of all categories of electorates can only vote where there is no tension.
The town hall meeting was attended by INEC officials, representatives of civil society organisations, political parties, youth and women organizations as well as people living with disabilities.