In a bid to ensure Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) in Lagos are not disenfranchised in the 2023 general elections, the Lagos State government has partnered with the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to establish eight special centers to register PWDs for two days within the new week.
The special centers are located in the five Ibile Division of the State in Epe, Ikorodu, Lagos Island, Badagry, Ikeja, Idi- Araba, Oko-Baba, and Teslim Balogun Stadium in Surulere.
At a news conference at Alausa, the General Manager, Lagos State Office of Disability Affairs, LASCODA, Mr Dare Ogundairo, said the exercise which will take place on Monday 25 and Tuesday 26 was to capture more PWDs to vote closer to their place of residence during next year’s general elections.
He urged the administrators of different disability clusters to take advantage of the exercise to even representation.
“PWDs should try as much as possible to go to these places because it would be wrong if INEC take the machine there and people do not turn up. It is just for two days and we want to make sure that the purpose of this exercise is achieved.”
Also speaking, the Head of Voters Registry, INEC Lagos, Mr. Muyiwa Yusuf assured that machines and INEC personnel would be deployed to the special centers within the two days as requested by LASCODA.
Yusuf also noted that out of the over ten million Nigerians already captured nationwide, only seventy-five thousand, four hundred and twenty-two are PWDs.
He thereafter appealed to all Lagos residents who have not collected their Permanent Voters Card, PVC to do so, noting that out of the over six million registered voters in Lagos, about one million PVCs are yet to be collected.
The eight special centres that have been designated for this purpose are; Ikorodu Central Local Government Area, Ikorodu; Ability and Disability Centre, Ajara, Badagry; Old Secretariat, Ikeja; Onikan Youth Centre, Lagos Island; Sports Recreation Centre, Epe; Idi-Araba Correctional Centre; Teslim Balogun Stadium and Correctional Centre, Oko-Baba, Ebute-Metta.