By Comfort Olayinka
President of the Senate, Senator Godswill Akpabio, GCON, returned to the country from London in the early hours of Monday, looking robust and dismissing widespread rumours of ill health.
Some social media reports had alleged that Akpabio was critically ill and receiving treatment in a London hospital. But the Senate President swiftly refuted the claims, describing them as figments of imagination.
“There’s nothing like such. I’m fit as a fiddle. I only stopped over in London for a short vacation,” Akpabio told journalists at the airport.
The Senate President had earlier attended the Sixth World Conference of Speakers of Parliament in Geneva, Switzerland, between July 29 and 31, after which he proceeded to London to rest, following what he described as a “hectic legislative year.”
Akpabio, who touched down at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport at about 4:00 a.m., was received at the Presidential Wing by senators, aides, and well-wishers from different walks of life.
Addressing reporters on his return, Akpabio assured Nigerians of more “robust legislative engagements” as the National Assembly resumes, while also defending Nigeria’s strong delegation to the International Parliamentary Union (IPU) in Geneva.
He promised citizens greater dividends of democracy through closer collaboration with the Executive and Judiciary, noting that effective partnerships across government arms would fast-track national development.