The Nigerian kidnappers of a three-year-old British girl have demanded money and negotiations to secure her release are about to start, the girl’s mother told Reuters on Friday.
The toddler, Margaret Hill, was snatched on Thursday morning from the car in which she was being driven to school in Port Harcourt in the oil-producing Niger Delta.
Her mother, Oluchi Hill, said that in the latest of several phone calls with the kidnappers one of them had demanded money although the line had cut off before he specified an amount.
Speaking by telephone from her home in Port Harcourt, she said she had been allowed to talk to her daughter briefly.
”She was crying. She said they gave her only water. She wants to come back,” Oluchi Hill said, crying as she spoke.
The kidnappers have threatened to kill her daughter.
”He said he doesn’t care about killing and burying the baby,” she said.
Abductions for ransom are extremely frequent in the Niger Delta — although children have rarely been targeted — and in several past cases kidnappers have threatened to kill hostages.
No such threat has been carried out and hostages are usually released unharmed in exchange for money.
While Hill was talking to Reuters on the telephone, agents from the State Security Services (SSS) arrived at her home to help her negotiate the girl’s release. She said she was leaving with the SSS men immediately to start negotiating.
Bar attacked
During an earlier phone call, the kidnappers had said they wanted to swap the girl for her father, Mike Hill, but Oluchi Hill said they had not mentioned that when they called again.
Mike Hill is a British consultant who works in the oil and gas industry and has lived in Port Harcourt for many years. Oluchi Hill, who is Nigerian, runs Goodfellas, a popular bar located in the relatively upscale GRA neighbourhood of the city.
Goodfellas was attacked in August 2006 by armed men who kidnapped several expatriates. Hill had the bullet holes in the ceiling of the bar painted over, but business slowed after the raid.
About 200 adult expatriates have been kidnapped in the Niger Delta since the start of 2006 and 15 are still being held by various armed groups. Most abductions are for ransom although a few have been politically motivated.
The abduction of Margaret Hill is the third child kidnapping this year, according to local media.
Nigerian newspapers reported last month that the three-year-old son of a member of the Rivers state House of Assembly was kidnapped and handed back to the family unharmed in exchange for money. There were also reports earlier in the year of another child abduction for ransom.
Britain on June 8 advised all its nationals to leave three core states in the Niger Delta because of rising insecurity, including Rivers state where Port Harcourt is located. – Reuters