By Oludamisi Ojo
People living With Disabilities (PWDs) have threatened to take the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to Court for alleged exclusion of their members in the electoral process in the June 18 governorship election in Ekiti State.

Addressing reporters in Ado Ekiti, on Monday, after presenting a report of its findings of the impending poll, the Executive Director, Centre for Citizens’ Living With Disabilities, Dr. David Anyaele, said the National Disability Law has mandated INEC to provide materials for inclusion of PWDs in all elections.

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Anyaele said every attempt to prevent members of the group from voting due to INEC’s laxity will be challenged in court.

He said such would amount to a breach of the law signed by President Muhammadu Buhari.

On security, Anyaele said PWDs are deeply worried due to persistent cases of thuggery during an election, urging INEC to partner with police and other security agencies to checkmate this sordid scenario.

“Up to now, we learned the INEC has not made some materials ready to sensitize the PWDs, particularly the form EC40H. INEC also must allow the deafs to bring sign specialists to polling units for proper voting. To resolve this, there must be disability desk officers across all the polling units.

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“The reason why we are here is to hold INEC into account. It is no longer a charity for INEC to provide an enabling environment for PWDs to vote. Before, it was INEC may provide materials for PWDs to participate, but the law has changed it to INEC shall.

“We are here to observe INEC compliance and any failure, we are going to use every legal instrument to compel INEC to comply. It is not about Ekiti alone, but we are also impressing that in Osun”.

Anyaele said: “We are also telling our people to refrain from the act of vote-buying and selling. We are going to roll out jingles a week before that election that our members shouldn’t engage in this because of economic deprivation.

“People can’t be mortgaging their future or trivialize the electoral system by selling their votes. Bad governance affects everybody, including the PWDs, so we must stay away from such evil”.
The report presented by the Center’s Research Officer, Mr. Humphrey Ukeaja revealed that 95 percent of people living with disabilities in Ekiti are ready to vote, saying 80 percent of them already procured their Permanent Voter Cards(PVCs).

“The report showed that 44.2 percent of them found some of the polling units inaccessible, they are complaining about topography.

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“Reports by some of the leaders of PWDs in Ekiti confirmed that INEC has not been taking steps to carry them along in the process of electioneering. There is a need for interactions between the INEC and the PWDs for them to be fully part of the electoral process”.

The Chairman, Joint National Association of People Living With Disabilities, Ekiti chapter, Mr. Kayode Owolabi, was the first to raise a poser that INEC has not been carrying its members along as expected .

Owolabi threatened that his group would sue the commission if such continues to manifest.

He said” the way INEC treated us was bad in the past, but we are seeing improvement. We appeal to them to provide disability desk officers and braille ballot papers that can enable those with visual impairment to vote for the candidates of their choices”.