From Ifeoma Ejiofor
TAF Africa has advocated improved provision for effective participation of Persons With Disabilities(PWDs) in election process across the country.
The group particularly tasked the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and others to ensure that Persons With Disabilities (PWDs) are not left behind in the subsequent polls.
TAF Africa’s position was contained in her post election Press Statement signed by Lynn Aguncha, the Senior Communications Officer for the group made available to journalists on Tuesday.
TAF Africa with support from the European Union Support to Democratic Governance in Nigeria EU-SDGN II, Programme, noted that PWDs were not effectively carried along in the last Saturday polls.
TAF AFRICA revealed that she engaged, trained and deployed one hundred and fifty observers, twenty five sign language interpreters, and media monitors across the all the LGAs of Anambra State.
The observers according to the press statement were coordinated through the TAF Disability Hub Application, a real-time, data-driven platform for tracking accessibility, assistive tools, and the voting experiences of PWDs.
The initiative, according to the group, was part of her commitment toward encouraging all inclusive democratic participation and evaluating how far electoral stakeholders uphold the rights of PWDs under the Discrimination Against Persons with Disabilities (Prohibition) Act, 2018.
The group pointed out that the feedback she got from her observers indicated lack of effective provision of materials to assist the PWDs inspite of INEC’s earlier promise to make same available.
TAF Africa also observed with concern attempt to influence the choice of a person living with disability in the pretence of trying to assist by an agent of an undisclosed political party.
The group revealed that vote buying was also reported by most of the observers engaged across the State noting that party agents were.said to be offering undisclosed sum of money voters.
The development according to TAF Africa if not checked will continue to frustrate the desire for credible polls across the country.
