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Visually Impaired People Lament INEC’s Unpreparedness For Blind Voters, Participate In Voting Exercise In Ogbomoso
By Our Reporter

People with the impaired vision have berated INEC for their unpreparedness for the blind voters.

Naijanewshub.com.ng reports that the people with impaired vision has decried the unpreparedness of INEC adhoc staffs in attending to them at the polling units.

At the Oyo State Special Basic School, Ogbomosho, and Nigerian Training Center for the Blind, in Ogbomoso, Osupa ward 9; Unit 13, a virtually impaired person, who is a lawyer by profession, Barrister Barr. Tunde Fadiya lamented that INEC did not give their staff adequate training on Braille Voting Materials.

He said, ” when I got here around 7:30am to exercise my franchise as a Nigeria citizen I discovered that the INEC staff here didn’t have adequate knowledge about the braille voting materials which is meant for virtually impaired people to vote and this made us to wait for some hours before we were attended to.”

“We’re invited here last week by the instructors in this training centers on how to make use of the braille materials to cast our votes and we expected that INEC staff should have been adequately educated about that materials too, but on getting here I waited for almost four hours before I was attended to because they could not attend to me, it was one of the instructors here that now came to my aid, who eventually helped me, and I have voted for the candidate of my choice.”

“The INEC staff see ‘Braille Paper’ as something new and strange, INEC needs to sensitize their staff on this new voting technology for the blinds,so they can improve on it in the previous elections.”

Virtually impaired people (the blinds) also casted their vote in Unit 13, Osupa Ward 9, Ogbomosho area of Oyo State at the ongoing general elections.

In their own separate remarks a blind couple Mr. and Mrs.Olatunji Olaniyi and Lasisi Oluwaloni, confirmed that they were led to the polling boots by one of their closest ally who helped them in casting their votes for their choice candidates by placing their hands on the ballot papers.

They said, “we got here so early and we are so happy that we were attended to despite our disability, though we were assisted our friends who are not visually impaired people to cast our votes, we pray that God will give us good leaders that will give us good governance that can give us job opportunity, adequate health care system, and sound education.

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