Ben Ayade, the governor of Cross Rivers State
Senator Patrick Ani, a Third Republic lawmaker, has been kidnapped by gunmen.
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 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.
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