The 2023 governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Abia State, Chief Ikechi Emenike, has said that conscious efforts must be made to minimise the occurrence of avoidable deaths in the state.
He stated this while reacting to the fatal accident which occured at the Ogbor Hill area of Aba on Tuesday resulting to loss of four lives while 11 people survived with varying degrees of injuries.
Emenike, who expressed anguish at the abrupt end of the victims, advised the state government to do the necessary things to ensure that the lives of Abians were no longer jeopardised by careless drivers.
He noted that even though nobody has the power to determine when and how death would come, “we must do our best as government and as citizens to avoid avoidable deaths.”
The Abia APC leader recalled that the Ogbor Hill Water Side area had been recording fatal accidents over the years, noting that the latest fatalities could have been averted if a lasting solution had been put in place.
“It is all the more regrettable and disheartening to learn that this fatal accident could have been avoided given an extant regulation prohibiting heavy duty and articulated vehicles from entering Abia cities during the day.
“Unfortunately, and perhaps for political reasons, it appeared there was a break in the enforcement of the ban on movement of heavy duty vehicles following the change of government,” Emenike stated.
He, therefore, warned against playing politics with the lives of Ndi Abia, stressing that politics should have no place in matters of safeguarding lives and property of people.
The development economist further stated that a knee-jerk response would never bring a lasting solution to a nagging problem.
Emenike said that he was particularly pained by the heart-rending pictures that emanated from the scene of the accident, adding that “such scenarios are products of actions, inactions or outright negligence.”
While commiserating with families that lost their loved ones in the accident, Emenike prayed for peaceful repose of the departed and wished the injured victims quick recovery.
