By Onwukwe Ezeru, Abia
The 2016 annual para-badminton national championship tagged, “1st Mrs. Nkechi Ikpeazu national championship,” has been scheduled to kick off in Umuahia, Abia State from 1st to 3rd December, 2016.
Briefing members of the committee at the Abia Hotels, Umuahia, the National President and International Contact Person to Nigeria on para-badminton, Ekeoma Samuel, said that the event was part of the activities to mark the 2016 International Day for Persons with Disability.
He said that the target of the organization was to ensure that by the year 2020 Nigerian medals at the Olympic games would be on the increase, adding that their vision was to challenge the other countries by participating in para-badminton and many other games.
He described sports as a veritable instrument for empowerment of persons with disabilities, giving a glaring example of the recently concluded Rio Olympic where the able bodied Nigerians narrowly got a bronze medal while the disabled came back with eight gold medals, two silver and a bronze medal. According to him, “The Rio Olympic passed a message that there are truly abundance in disabilities”.
To raise funds for easy flow of the para-badminton competition, which will draw participants from the 36 states of the Federation, Samuel said the body designed Raffle tickets which will be sold to individual at the cost of N200 to support the efforts of the Abia State Government and Moslynwill Global Partnership For Development, towards them.
He said that the raffle draw would come with a star prize and other consolation prizes, stating that to authenticate the initiative which he said will put smiles on the faces of the disabled, the organization got authority letter from Abia State Gaming Board to go on with the raffle draw.
While commending the Abia State government for giving them the necessary facilities, he appealed to Nigerians to generously support the event and buy the raffle tickets to encourage the disabled in becoming a social assets instead of being a liability.