By Editor
President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio, has said his wife, Mrs Unoma Akpabio, recovered miraculously after spending six months in a coma in a German hospital.
Akpabio spoke during a visit to the Prayer Ground of St Padre Pio in San Giovanni Rotondo, Italy, where he and other Nigerians prayed for peaceful general elections in 2027 and for an end to banditry and terrorism in Nigeria. NigerianCultural Products
Speaking to St Padre Pio TV/Radio, the Senate President said the delegation visited the site to seek God’s blessings for themselves, their families and the country.
“We are here to offer prayers and get blessings from God for ourselves, our families and our dear country, which is currently being ravaged by banditry and terrorism,” he said.
“We are here on this prayer ground, and we are going home fulfilled that we were able to touch this holy ground and present our intentions, which he will take to God on our behalf.”
According to a statement by his media aide, Jackson Udom, Akpabio said he was impressed by the maintenance of the prayer ground, describing it as a holy site for adherents and followers of Padre Pio.
The Senate President said his faith in the saint’s intercession was strengthened by his wife’s recovery after a medical procedure went wrong.
“My wife was in a coma for six months in a hospital in Germany. She was 98 per cent dead. Instead of switching off the life-support machine, I used a picture of Pio to make the sign of the cross on her,” he said.
Akpabio said he prayed to the Virgin Mary and asked Padre Pio to intercede for his wife.
“Miraculously, she woke up. That hospital, up till today, has yet to understand what happened,” he said.
He added that his wife spent a further three months in hospital after regaining consciousness before she could remember his name and those of their children.
“This is my 10th time here. We are here today to give thanks to God and to thank Pio for always interceding for us,” he said. DownloadInteractive Maps
Akpabio said the family honoured the saint by giving one of their sons the baptismal name Pio.
He also said they established the Pio Football Academy to train and provide scholarships for disadvantaged children from the age of nine through university.
Padre Pio (Italian for father Pius), formally known as St Pio of Pietrelcina, was an Italian Capuchin priest widely associated with prayer, repentance, compassion for the sick and service to the poor.
Catholics also revere him for the stigmata – the wounds resembling those of Christ’s crucifixion – which he was believed to have borne. He was canonised by Pope John Paul II in 2002.
