Gunmen kidnap Senator in Calabar

A Third Republic lawmaker, Senator Patrick Ani, has been kidnapped by unknown gunmen in Cross River State. While some reports have it that he was kidnapped outside his residence in Asari Eso Layout, off Marian Road Calabar, Thisday is reporting that he was kidnapped in his farm in Akpabuyo a town near Calabar.
According to ThisDay, Ani, who represented Cross River South Senatorial District on the platform of the defunct National Republican Convention (NRC), between 1991 and 1992 was kidnapped in his farm in Akpabuyo near Calabar on Wednesday.

Ani, who is the younger brother of former Nigeria’s finance minister, Anthony Ani, was allegedly picked up without any resistance from his farm by suspected militants.

Though the police in the state said they have no information about the kidnapping of Ani, it was gathered that a team of policemen went to his farm hours after information started filtering into town to the effect that he had been kidnapped.

It is strongly believed that the visit to his farm was in connection with the kidnapping of Ani who authored the “Fourth Force,” a discourse on current issues in Nigerian politics and nation-building, which regularly appeared as advertorial on several national newspapers.

Attempts to get any member of his family to comment on the kidnapping of the senator did not materialise, but a source, one of the workers in the farm, who pleaded not to be mentioned because he was not instructed to comment on the issue, confided that Ani was kidnapped on Wednesday in his farm in Akpabuyo, and added that a team of policemen visited the farm hours after the incident and interviewed the workers on the matter.

However, when contacted on the issue, the Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), in the state, Irene Ugbo, promised to make enquiries on the issue and get back to THISDAY. But up until press time, she never did.