Ahead of the Anambra gubernatorial election, Inclusive Friends Association (IFA) has trained 200 Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) as selected observers at nine centres clustering the 21 Local Government Areas (LGAs) according to their proximity and numbers of participating observers with all COVID-19 protocols adhered to.
The Executive Director, Grace Jerry, in a statement explained that the training centres are, Ihiala, Dunukofia and Ogbaru on Tuesday 26th October 2021, Njikoka, Orumba North and Anambra East on Wednesday 27thOctober 2021 and Onitsha South, Orumba North and Awka South on Thursday 28th October 2021.
According to her, this is to ascertain that the observers understand the content of training and to test IFA’s systems and readiness, all 200 observers will participate in a simulation exercise on Tuesday 2nd and Thursday 4th November 2021 ahead of the election.
She said observers will send in practice text messages to the IFA database.
She further said to communicate the activities of the IFA and impacts,IFA has commissioned an educative jingle to sensitizethe community of PWDs and the Anambra citizens at large to participate in the planned elections.
“The radio jingle has information on the deployment of assistive materials by the Independent National Electoral Commission. These materials are the Braille Ballot Guide (BBG), Form EC30E, Form EC40H and priority voting.
“In further promoting communication to citizens, the IFA will hold a pre-press conference on Friday 5thNovember 2021. The press conference will host members of the press across Anambra state and in the PWDs participants.
“The IFA is committed to ensuring accessibility for the community of PWDs through research and engagement with relevant stakeholders in having a free, fair, credible and inclusive election.
The breakdown of the sampled PWDs observers are as follows: Aguata 12, Anambra East 9, Anambra West 6, Anaocha 11, Awka North 5, Awka South 14, Ayamelum6, Dunukofia 6, Ekwusigo 7, Idemili North 16, Idemili South9, Ihiala 11, Njikoka 8, Nnewi North 11, Nnewi South 10, Ogbaru 14, Onitsha North 11, Onitsha South 11, Orumba North 9, Orumba South 7 and Oyi 7 observers.
