Inclusive Friends Association, Disability Commission Launch Vote-Ability Campaign to Increase Registration of PWDs in CVR Exercise

The Inclusive Friends Association (IFA) in partnership with the National Commission for Persons with Disabilities (NCPWD) launched the VOTE-ability campaign on Thursday, July 21, 2022. The PWD CVR VOTEability campaign is an initiative that seeks to increase the participation of Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) in the Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) Exercise.

While speaking at the launch of the campaign, Grace Jerry, the Executive Director of IFA explained that the campaign will target all PWD clusters that are eligible to vote but have yet to register in the CVR as focal beneficiaries.

Read Also: Read the Full speech of the Launch of the PWD CVR VOTEability Campaign

Jerry noted that “through a community-based approach, the campaign will mobilize and target Special schools and local community centers to set up registration booths.”

She disclosed the campaign is aimed at increasing PWDs registration in the CVR exercise from 75,000 to 1 million before the close of the registration exercise.

While the registration exercise will happen from Monday, July 25, to 31 2022, the FCT registration centers include:

1. Pilot Primary School Wuse Zone 5

2. Abuja School for the Deaf, Kuje

3. Abuja Children Home, Nyanya, Karu

4. Govt Girls Secondary School Dutsen Alhaji-Bwari

5. Disability colony, Karamajiji

6. Junior secondary school, Gwagwalada

She thereafter appealed to citizens with disabilities to take the opportunity to register to get their PVC at any of the registration centers that would be set up.

The Executive Secretary of the NCPWD, Mr. James Lalu corroborated that the commitment of the disability commission is to ensure that PWDs who own their Permanent Voters’ card yield to million before the end of the registration exercise.

Lalu added that “as a commission, we are putting our heads together with Organizations of Persons with Disabilities (OPDs) in one voice to make sure we make the necessary impact in the 2023 general election.”

He noted that the campaign is sending a message to all politicians and candidates to begin to consider PWDs as valuable individuals in their community, adding that, “No PWD will use their PVC to vote for any political party that does not provide the proper inclusion of PWDs in their system.”

He appealed to the media to continue to provide a necessary voice on behalf of the disability community to whoever would hear and to amplify the rights of PWDs everywhere.