Alhaji Jusu Jaka, President of the Amputees Association has last Saturday, 11th February 2012 at Ward 329, Constituency 92 in Jui gone through the Biometric Registration exercise and he is now qualified to vote in the upcoming multi tier elections.
Alhaji Jaka will be one of hundreds of exceptional cases to go through the registration exercise without completing the process one hundred percent. As President of the Amputees Association, Alhaji Jaka is armless, being a victim of rebels’ amputation spree during the rebel invasion of Freetown on 6th January 1999. He uses his arms with the help of a metal formulation attached to his body which he calls, ‘prospective’. He therefore did not thumb print his registration form. Thumb printing is one of the key elements in the Biometric voter registration process.
Mariama Cole, NEC official in the Ward, responsible for recording the registration slips after the process, disclosed Alhaji Jaka successfully went through the process with the recording of his parents’ names and other essential information and his photo was taken.
According to Madam Cole armless persons are only identified by their photos, their eye balls and ears.
“Alhaji Jusu Jaka is the first person in such an unfortunate situation to be registered at this center,” Madam Cole revealed, noting that several single amputees have been registered at the center. She stated that those single amputees have either of their arms, the thumbs of which can be used to do the thumbprint.
“In the case of Alhaji Jaka, none is available, we therefore had no alternative but to rely on his photo, his eye balls and his ears as reference points of identification,” Madam Cole noted.
The President of the Sierra Leone Amputee and War Wounded Association said he had since not registered because the exercise had not reached his area. He said registering as a voter is a matter of must for him being that he is a responsible citizen and it is his right to vote in a national election.
He disclosed that he was treated unfairly by the registrars because according to him, he was not allowed to use what he considers as his arm, the metal ‘prospective’.
“That is what I consider now as my arms. They do everything my hands could have done for me. Those who gave and fixed it to my body are not stupid. That is my identity,” Alhaji Jaka stated.
He said the NEC officials did not allow him to use his metal prospective to thumbprint to see whether the Biometric machine can identify it. “
I think the NEC officials should have used my case as a test to see whether the machine can actually identify metal duplication,” Jusu Jaka maintained.
He however called on all amputees and war wounded across the country to participate in the registration process as it is their constitutional and human rights, he said.
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