Suspected Militants Kidnap Patrick Ani In Cross River

Third Republic Senator, Mr. Patrick Ani, has been kidnapped.

Information reaching THISDAY has it that Ani, who represented Cross River South Senatorial District on the platform of the defunct National Republican Convention (NRC), 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 gunmen suspected to be militants that have been terrorising the southern part of the state.

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.