The All Progressives Congress (APC) family in Akwa Ibom State has expressed dismay at the rumour making the rounds that the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, was critically ill and could be given up for death.
The rumour mill said the Senate President was wallowing in a chronic life-threatening ailment at a London hospital and was battling to live.
But the APC described it as an acerbic rhetoric and the handiwork of his political detractors deliberately cooked to hoodwink the gullible public. The party said it was a total charade that holds no iota of truth as the Senate President, who just returned from his United Kingdom (UK) visit, was hale and hearty.
Senator Akpabio, the party stated, only took time to rest after hectic legislative deliberations as the National Assembly was on a recess.
In a statement on behalf of the party, the state APC publicity secretary, Barr OtoAbasi Udo urged well-meaning Nigerians to disregard such wild and blanket allegation capable of generating politically-motivated tensions ahead of the polls in 2027.
“The APC Akwa Ibom State chapter, deems it fit and necessary to welcome our dear own back considering the heap of rumours in the social media and elsewhere during his absence that the Senate President was critically sick and bedridden, warranting his immediate rush to a London hospital.
“Indeed, it is normal, natural and expected for any mortal body to at any time experience a bout of one ailment or another, and as such if the Senate President experiences such, it is normal and natural as his body is not cast in immortality.
“But it is more than a great disservice to the Senate President, his family, Nigeria and humanity to peddle rumours of ill health, death and other sundry ill-wind against a soul totally dedicated to the service of his fatherland.
“As baseless and unsubstantiated as those rumours were, we advise the peddlers of such rumours to take a moment and reflect on life’s vagaries as their earthly bodies are not equally cast in immortality.
“The Senate President has since arrived, hale and hearty to the warm embrace of his fellow senators, aides and supporters. We believe this has dispelled the rumours of his ill-health, death and the rest,” the party said.
The party, therefore, called for prayers for Nigerian leaders as they battle to navigate the country out of the woods for more dividends of democracy.
