By Abbanobi-Eku Onyeka
Ahead of the 2027 general elections, President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio, has visited the Prayer Ground of St. Padre Pio in St. Giovanni Rotondo, Italy, to pray for peaceful elections and an end to banditry and terrorism in Nigeria.
According to a statement issued on Sunday by Jackson Udom, Special Assistant to the President of the Senate on Media, Akpabio made the visit with others to seek divine intervention for Nigeria and blessings for their families.
Speaking to St. Padre Pio TV/Radio, Akpabio said the delegation visited the shrine to pray for Nigeria, which he said was currently being affected by insecurity.
“We are all from Nigeria. We came to offer prayers and get blessings from God for ourselves, families and our dear country that is currently being ravaged by banditry and terrorism. We are going home fulfilled, that we were able to touch this Holy ground,” he said.
Akpabio described the site as holy ground, saying devotees of St. Pio believe in his intercession and have maintained the shrine properly.
The Senate President also recounted what he described as a miraculous recovery by his wife, Mrs. Unoma Akpabio, after she spent six months in a coma in a German hospital following a failed operation.
“My wife was in a coma for six months in a hospital in Germany. She was 98 percent dead. I used the picture of PIO to make a sign of the cross on her, instead of putting-off the life-support machine she was on. I cried to Mother Mary and called on PIO to intercede. Miraculously, she woke up. That hospital, up till today, is yet to understand what happened,” he said.
Akpabio said the visit was his 10th to the shrine, adding that his wife spent another three months after her discharge before she could remember his name and those of their children.
He said he honoured St. Pio by naming his son Pio and establishing the Pio Football Academy, which trains children from poor families and provides scholarships from age nine through university level.
