Hours after her rescue from the grip of kidnappers, Professor (Mrs.) Kamene Okonjo, the 82-year-old mother of Nigeria’s Coordinating Minister for the Economy/Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has been flown out of the state capital, Asaba.

“She was flown out this afternoon,” a source told News Express.

The source indicated that the matriarch of the Okonjo family was being taken away from the state to enable her receive medical attention and to recover from the trauma of her ordeal, far away from her hometown. News Express could not confirm if she is being taken to Abuja, where her famous daughter and Finance Minister resides, or abroad.

Mrs. Okonjo, a retired professor of sociology at the University of Nigeria, UNN, Nsukka, Enugu State, is known to suffer from diabetes. She was taken to Asaba, capital of Delta State, South-South Nigeria, this morning after being rescued by the police from an uncompleted building in Kwale, a town in Delta North Senatorial District.

Known by the alias “Bolaji” the head of the gang that kidnapped her died of gunshot wounds on the way to Asaba.

Prof. Okonjo, the Queen Mother of Ogwashi-Uku in Delta North, was taken away from the palace by 10 armed men around 1:47 p.m. on Sunday. Her husband, Obi (Prof.) Chukwuka Okonjo, was away from the state to attend a meeting of the Board of Trustees meeting of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) as at the time of the incident.

•Photo: Queen Okonjo (left) with her famous daughter, Ngozi.