Delta: Kidnapped victims return home with chopped off fingers

The 80-year-old retired Army Major, Azum Asoya, and his 55-year-old wife, Elizabeth, have been set free by their abductors.
The gang however left an indelible mark on their body by cutting off their fingers.
They were set free on Sunday, after 17 harrowing days in the den of the kidnappers.
The octogenarian and his wife were abducted by the gang on November 30, while on their way home from a burial in another part of the town.

Their fingers were few days ago parcelled and delivered to their kinsmen at Okpanam, Oshimili North Local Council of Delta State in a desperate bid by the kidnappers to collect the N30 million demanded on their heads.
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 Central Senatorial District axis of 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 large numbers facilitating with the victims while family members kept cool as they thanked everybody for their support during the trying period.
A source in the family, who spoke under the condition of anonymity, said close associates of the family assisted with part of the N5 million ransom to facilitate their release when they discovered that security men were helpless in the rescue mission.
This was especially so when there was serious threat from the kidnappers to eliminate them after cutting the 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 army major and his wife were freed because men of the command were closing in on the kidnappers.


Source