By Lawrence Nwimo
The disabilities community in Anambra State, Wednesday, advised candidate of the All Progressive Congress (APC) in the just concluded Anambra State Governorship election to have a rethink of challenging APGA’s victory in court if he still want to be politically relevant in the state.
The group stated this through Barr. Chuks Ezewuzie, a Special Adviser to the Anambra State Governor on Disability Matters at Prof. Dora Akunyili Women Development Centre, Awka, the State capital.
As reported earlier, Andy Uba, the governorship candidate of APC had made his intentions known to challenge the victory of Prof. Chukwuma Soludo of the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) at the tribunal, having felt that his mandate was stolen in the said election.
However the group in reaction to the election, stated that such suit would be baseless and advised that anybody that is nursing ambition of challenging APGA’s victory with frivolous lawsuits will only risk his political ambition in the state.
According to them, “The court is the last hope of the common man and everybody as a citizen has the right to go to court if they felt that their rights was trampled upon. But on what basis will such person go to court? Everybody was there and took part in the voting and counting process.
“Going to court with frivolities is scorning the people of the state who expressed their wishes loud and clear.
“It is your right to go to court but do not go to court on frivolities because you would be putting a nail on the coffin of your political ambition in the state. Except you have a good ground, you would be creating political prejudice in the minds of Anambra electorates”.
They maintained that the introduction of the Biomodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS), was a step in the right direction towards achieving free, fair and credible elections in the country, and encouraged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to work on the functionality of the machine to achieve more success in future elections in the country.
They informed that the disabilities community in the state are delighted at the emergence of Prof. Charles Soludo as the governor of the state and noted that it was a true reflection of the minds of Ndi Anambra.
“We in the disabilities community in Anambra State react to the victory of our dear party and we paid our dues through our campaigns and voting”, he said. He also lauded APGA’s decision to create Directorate of Disabilities Community, which, according to him, gave enough platform for the disability group to participate fully in the politics of the state.
“We have won the battle. To win a battle is to emerge victorious in an election. We got what we wanted. The battle would be won when Soludo and his deputy is sworn in and everybody is on board.
“We thank Ndi Anambra for the success of the election as well as say bravo to APGA for fielding the right candidate. The election showed that politics had come to maturity in the state. Things are different in Anambra State and the state’s electorates can never be taken by surprise again by the money bags.
“The disabilities community are celebrating the outcome of the election because the winner would continue to do what the current administration had started doing for the community in Anambra state”, he added.
According to them, the duo of Soludo and Ibezim possessed the connections, loyalty, competence and creativity to usher air of development to the people and also thanked Governor, Chief Willie Obiano for moving issues of persons with disabilities from charity to a thing of right in line with United Nation’s convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
On his part, Chairman, Joint National Association of Persons with Disabilities (JONAPWD) and member of the Anambra State Capital Expenditure Bilateral Discussion Committee, Comrade Ugochukwu Okeke, said persons with disabilities played active roles in the election because of the achievements of the outgoing governor on the disability community in the state.
“We don’t want to go backward from what our people had been enjoying in the state and that is why we voted massively for the continuation of APGA administration. We believed that the incoming governor will borrow a leaf from governor Obiano in not only ensuring inclusive governance but make the government accessible to persons with disabilities,” he remarked.