Daniel Agbolade

With the presidential election three days away,  people with disability across the country have  pledged to deliver 10 million votes for President Muhammad Buhari.

Chairman, Board of Trustees (BoT), Joint Association of People With Disability, Mr.  Paul Adelabu, gave the pledge  at a delegates conference organised by All Progressives Congress (APC) 2019 South West Zonal Presidential Campaign Council for Buhari/Osinbajo support groups in the region.

He said the 10 million people with disabilities, who are registered voters have kept their Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs) ready to vote for Mr Buhari in appreciation of Disability Bill that the President signed into law on January 23, 2019.

He added that people with disabilities will forever be grateful to the President, because successive administrations before him, including former Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo, late Umaru Musa Yar'Adua and Goodluck Jonathan, refused to signed the bill.

He said, "Even people with disabilities who don't have thumps have decided to use their toes to cast their votes for Buhari, because of the Disability Bill. We have about 10 million of us who have their PVCs intact. Go and check INEC's list. The Bill is our life, we will vote massively for the President for signing the bill".

At the event, members of 54  different Buhari/Osinbajo support groups from across South West states were present, which had the Minister for Health, Mr. Isaac Adewole, Southwest Zonal Director of the APC 2019 Presidential Campaign Council, Oluwole Oke, and APC Zonal Secretary, Mr. Ayo Afolabi, also in attendance.

Adewole charged  members of Buhari/Osinbajo support groups to go from unit to unit and educate the electorate on how to vote correctly, in order to avoid what happened during the last year's governorship election in Osun state in which about 47,000 votes were voided.

While appealing to the people of the region not to waste Buhari's votes by not voting correctly, he advised that "the index finger should be used to thumbprint and wait for about one to two minutes for the ink to dry before you fold the ballot paper and put it inside ballot box".

On his part, Oke urged members of the support groups to go and mobilize Southwest voters for the re - election of Buhari and Vice President Yemi Osinbajo.

Oke, who said the conspiracy to take away the Vice President slot away from the Southwest and give it to the Southeast should not be allowed to work out, appealing to the people of the region to vote massively for Buhari.

He said, "We should retain the front seat we currently occupy in the national government. PDP wants to take away the Vice president slot from us and give it to the Southeast. We should not allow this to happen, and the only way we can ensure this is to vote massively for Buhari and Osinbajo. 

"Fortunately for us, we have about 16 million votes here in Southwest. Southeast in which PDP has zoned the Vice president slot to has only 9 million votes. Is it possible for the zone with 9 million votes to take away what belongs to a zone with 16 million votes?

"So go to your various units and  ensure that maximum votes are returned to the President. We in Southwest have every reason to return PMB. The government has treated us well. The government has given the zone prime and juicy appointments”.