LAGOS – Jopam Foundation for the Physically Challenged Persons on Thursday urged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) make it easy for persons with disabilities to vote in the 2015 elections.
The President of the foundation, Mr Joshua Ebubedike, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos, that INEC could also involve them in the electoral process by way of employment.
Ebubedike, who said that disability did not mean disenfranchisement from national assignments, noted that persons with disabilities needed to be provided with logistic support that would allow them to move freely and vote.
“Over the years the physically challenged people are disenfranchised. During periods of election, we are always at home; we listen to the radio, but this time around, we want to get involved.
“So, we urge INEC to create an avenue for the physically challenged where they will be able to come out and cast their votes.“
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The president of the foundation also urged INEC to employ some of them as educators in the build up to the 2015 general elections.
According to him, the active involvement of persons with disabilities in such national assignments, as elections, will boost their morale.
He said that such persons would no longer feel disenfranchised once they were fully involved in national assignments.
“I also want to tell them by doing this they would have to get some of us, who are very legible, who can write, who can read, to advise them on how to go about it, because we also have our blue prints in terms of this.
“We don’t want a situation whereby you bring out somebody that does not know anything about the physically challenged and at the end of the day what they have in mind would not be implemented.
“So, we know where our shoe pinches us and we can also take care of our problems. So we want INEC to get us involved in the 2015 elections.“
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