APC PWDs Leader Challenges INEC’s 137,487 Figure

The National Leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Persons with Disabilities (PWDs), Aare Tolu Bankole, has challenged the interpretation of the 137,487 PWDs captured in the Independent National Electoral Commission’s (INEC) voter data.

Bankole said the figure should not be presented as the total number of PWDs on the voters’ register.

In a statement signed on Sunday, he said the figure covered voters whose disability status was captured after INEC began collecting the information as a distinct registration field.

He argued that many PWDs who registered in earlier cycles were not captured under such a classification and therefore remain in the register without a disability status attached to their records.

According to him, systematic collection of disability information became operational with the resumption of Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) in 2021, following the introduction of the relevant field on INEC’s online registration platform.

Bankole said Nigeria’s voter registration system had passed through several technological stages before the current digital system. As a result, he said, large numbers of voters registered before 2021, including PWDs, would not have the disability designation reflected in their records.

“You cannot count what you never measured,” Bankole said, arguing that the 137,487 figure should be understood as a record of indicated disability within the relevant registration period rather than a complete historical count of PWD voters.

INEC’s figure comprises 13,080 visually impaired persons, 9,299 hearing impaired persons, 30,561 persons with albinism, 19,430 persons with physical impairment and 54,941 persons in other categories.

Bankole also questioned whether the figure fully captured PWDs who registered after the disability field was introduced. He said some registrants might have declined to indicate their status because they considered it unnecessary, lacked awareness of the purpose of the information or feared stigma.

He said incomplete self-identification could further reduce the number reflected in INEC’s disability data, particularly where awareness of how the information would assist electoral planning remained limited.

The APC PWDs leader said accurate disability data was important because it could influence the provision of assistive devices, accessibility measures and other arrangements required to improve PWD participation in elections.

He urged INEC to consistently state the period and methodology behind its PWD figures whenever they are released, to prevent the data from being interpreted as a comprehensive count of all PWDs on the voters’ register.

Bankole also called for intensified public sensitisation to encourage PWDs completing or updating their voter registration to accurately indicate their status. He urged the commission to explore, within legal and privacy safeguards, ways of improving historical visibility of PWDs already captured in the register.

He further called for deeper collaboration between INEC and organisations representing PWDs ahead of the 2027 general elections, saying better data would support more effective planning and resource allocation.

“Persons with Disabilities are not a residual category,” Bankole said, stressing that their numerical presence and practical needs should be properly reflected in electoral data, planning and public discourse.