EBONYI COMMISSIONER LAUNCHES CHARITY FOUNDATION, EMPOWERS DISABLED STUDENT, BLIND MAN, ORPHANS, OTHERS

State Correspondent

In memory of his late father, Onikara Chief Augustine Ali Ezeali, who passed on in 2016, the Ebonyi State Commissioner for Project Monitoring and Evaluation, Chief Oluchukwu Ukie Ezeali (Chief P.Noble), has launched the Augustine Ali Ezeali Charity Foundation (AAECF), in Afikpo North Local Government Area of Ebonyi State.

During the launch on Sunday, which coincided with the posthumous birthday of his late father, Ezeali used the opportunity to provide hope to a disabled student of Akanu Ibiam Federal Polytechnic, Unwana, Miss Precious Nnenna Elekwa, by procuring a a brand-new wheelchair to ease her movement and attendance to lectures from her off campus residence in Unwana.

In the same vein, the commissioner provided N50,000 for a blind indigene of Afikpo North LGA, Mr Ali Nelson Uchenna, to establish a business of his own and become financially independent for life.

Similarly, Ezeali distributed N5,000 each to more than 20 orphans and other downtrodden children in Afikpo; in order to cushion their school fees from primary to secondary schools and other needs as they may request for.

Speaking in an interview, Ezeali said that the establishment of the charity foundation is in fulfillment of the promise he made during the burial of his late father on sustaining his legacies while on earth.

He said: “In a tribute to my late father, Onikara Chief Augustine Ali Ezeali, on Saturday, October 8, 2016, I said ‘I am establishing a Foundation that will immortalize your name and continue to reflect your priceless virtues and soft spot for the poor, especially the Society of St. Vincent the Paul. The Foundation as founded shall be called Augustine Ali Ezeali Charity Foundation (AAECF)’. I have just fulfilled that by officially launching the foundation on the posthumous birthday of my late father today, Sunday, February 28, 2021.

“In launching the foundation, we lived up to its bidding by carrying out charity works, including donating a new wheelchair to a disabled student, who got mysteriously crippled over ten years ago and was in dire need of the wheelchair. Also we provided money for a talented, but blind man to establish a business of his own, while hoping that other public spirited individuals can support him the more.

“My father was a selfless man, who made sure that he put smiles on the faces of people in numerous ways and I promised him that I will do my best to follow in his footsteps. The launch of the foundation wouldn’t be complete without our reaching out to as many people as possible, hence our reaching out to orphans and other less privileged Afikpo residents with N5,000 each.”

Showing her appreciation in an interview, the beneficiary of the wheelchair, Precious Nnenna Elekwa, who hails from Ibii in Ibii/Ozizza Autonomous Community of Afikpo North LGA, thanked Chief P.Noble profusely for coming to her aid at a time she needed it most, even as she equally prayed God to bless the Commissioner and his entire family for the goodness done to her.

She said: “I have been in this condition for over ten years now, but God knows best. I am just full of joy and gratitude to God for remembering me through Chief P. Noble. Due to my condition, I was having challenges attending lectures since the damage of my last wheelchair. I need not recount what I went through without a wheelchair to attend classes, especially the inconveniences I posed to students and relatives, whom I depended on to help my movement from my off campus lodge to lecture halls.

“May God bless Chief P. Noble and his entire family for remembering poor people like me. For this singular act of buying a new wheelchair to help my movement and education, his pockets will never run dry. God will continue granting his prayers and blessing his businesses and political career.”

Similarly, Ali Nelson Uchenna, who said he has been blind for 11 years, due to glaucoma and whose condition, according to him, had defied all the medical solutions he had sought, thanked Chief P. Noble for providing financial assistance for him to establish a business of his own.

“I don’t know how best to thank Chief P. Noble for giving me hope of economic survival and financial independence, but God knows that I am grateful. You may not know the neglect, disappointment and failed promises I have suffered in the hands of many people until this intervention by the Honourable Commissioner. I pray for God to continually provide Chief P. Noble the enablement to keep extending his legendary hands of kindness to humanity. I promise to invest the money judiciously,” he said.