Nigeria, Sept. 21 -- Unoma Akpabio, wife of Nigeria's Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, was in a coma for six months at a German hospital before she was miraculously healed through the intercession of an Italian Catholic priest, Pio Pietrelcina, widely known as Padre Pio.

Mr Akpabio, who disclosed this in a statement issued by one of his media aides, Jackson Udom, on Sunday, said that at the time his wife underwent a failed surgery and was declared 98 per cent dead. At the same time, in a coma, he cried to Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ and the Catholic priest for divine healing.

The statement was issued to announce the Senate president's visit to the prayer ground of St. Padre Pio in San Giovanni Rotondo, Italy, to offer prayers to...