Imo visually impaired person drums support for Atiku

As political campaign kicked off across the country, a visually impaired person and the Vice Chairman, Imo chapter of the Joint National Association of Persons With Disabilities (JONAPWD), Mr Clinton Amaechi, has drummed support for the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, describing him as a detribalised Nigerian.

Amaechi,  who hails from Obibi Amaumara community in Ezinihitte Mbaise council area of Imo, said this in an interview with newsmen in Owerri Monday.

He said his support for the former Vice President was premised on his personal encounter with the presidential hopeful.

The vice chairman recalled that he was a junior secondary school student in the year 2002 when Atiku, then Vice President of Nigeria assisted him with the purchase of braille literature and other requisite materials for the education of the blind, not minding his state of origin.

According to him, all efforts to seek assistance from Government and individuals proved abortive until his “divine encounter” with Atiku, when he paid a working visit to Imo.

He said:” As a child with special needs, I struggled to find help from among my people. There was so much that I needed to succeed in my studies all of which were quite costly”

He said: ” When I heard over the radio that the Vice President was to visit Imo,  I made up my mind to meet him in person and seek help”.

Amaechi said that shortly after his arrival at the Imo Concorde Hotels,  he heard the unmistakable voice of the then Governor, Chief Achike Udenwa, and he made efforts to approach him but the security men attempted to block him.

He said that it was then that Atiku beckoned them to stop and stretched out his hand and held me, saying, ‘young man, what do you want? I am Atiku!’.

Impaired Amaechi said that his whole body vibrated upon hearing the voice of Atiku as he managed to express himself.

He said: ” Atiku instructed his aides to take note of his needs and ensured that they were supplied in time”.

What Atiku said according to him, taught him to view all Nigerians as brothers, irrespective of their ethnic or religious inclinations as he did to him.

He said: ” I have not found a Nigerian more detribalised than Atiku who in spite of my not being a northerner, still cared about my needs”.

He said: ” Although I am a Christian and not a Muslim,  he bothered about my needs! Although blind, poor and wretched, he humbled himself to reach out to me. I will never forget this act of unifying love”.

He, therefore, called on Nigerians to support Atiku’s candidature for a dream country devoid of religious and ethnic bigotry.