Kidnapped retired Major, wife freed after their fingers were chopped off

 According to reports gathered, 80-year-old retired army Major, Azum Asoya, and his 55-year-old wife, Elizabeth, has regained their freedom on Sunday, after 17 days in hands of kidnappers.

However, their body bears the telltale of their ordeal in the kidnappers' den. They returned to their home in Okpanam, Oshimili North Local Council of Delta State without some of their fingers, which the kidnappers had chopped off.

 The octogenarian and his wife who were abducted by the gang on November 30, while on their way home from a burial in another part of the town, were set free yesterday.

But their fingers were a few days ago parcelled and delivered to their kinsmen in a desperate bid by the kidnappers to collect the N30 million ransom they had demanded.

The victims are now recuperating at an undisclosed hospital owing to high blood pressure.
They were beaten by rain over six times, even as the sores on their fingers were confirmed to have been treated with urine.

They were said to have been dropped at Otulu, Aniocha North Local Government Area of the state to find their way home before sympathisers helped them out.

A source said the victims were kept in a forest in Edo State "because network investigations revealed that they were communicating from that part of the country."
At the family house in Okpanam, sympathisers were seen in a large number to rejoicing with the family on the release of the victims.

A source said close associates of the family assisted with part of the N5 million ransom that was eventually paid to facilitate their release when they discovered that security men were helpless in the rescue mission.

They were said to have been desperate to raise the ransom after the kidnappers had threatened to kill them after cutting their fingers.

The abductors initially demanded N30 million to free their victims but reduced it to N9 million while the family bargained for N3 million until someone raised N2 million for them.

Lucky Uyabeme, the Delta State Police Public Relations Officer, said the abducted couple was freed because men of the command were closing in on the kidnappers.