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Kidnappers release British girl
09/07/2007 06:54 - (SA)
Port Harcourt - A three-year-old British girl kidnapped last week in southern Nigeria has been freed, Rivers State chief of police Felix Ogbaudu and the British foreign ministry said on Sunday.
Margaret Hill "has been released a few minutes ago ... I'm with her now, she is in very good condition," Ogbaudu said, adding that "not even a dime" had been given to secure the release.
A British foreign ministry spokesperson in London confirmed the release and told AFP that the girl, snatched at gunpoint on Thursday in Port Harcourt as she was being dropped off for school, had been reunited with her parents.
British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said in a statement that he was "delighted and relieved to hear of Margaret's release".
"I am grateful to the Nigerian authorities for all their help and I hope the perpetrators will be swiftly brought to justice."
"Foreign Office consular staff in Nigeria have been working closely with ... (local) authorities throughout, and of course Margaret Hill's family, and will continue to provide consular support as required."
The child's Nigerian-born mother Oluchi Hill said on Saturday that the captors had demanded a ransom, a day after threatening to kill the little girl if her father, Michael, did not take her place.
The father told Sky News television Sunday following Margaret's release: "The pressure has been unbelievable. We stopped eating and couldn't think of anything else.
"The kidnappers did not say who they were, but we don't think they were rebels.
"They also demanded a ransom, but we did not pay anything. There was no ransom paid. She was released due to the pressure put on the people by the security services of Nigeria."
No group claimed responsibility for the abduction, the latest to hit the restive oil-rich Niger Delta, but the main separatist group in the region, MEND, condemned the kidnapping.
More than 200 foreigners - mostly oil workers - have been seized since the start of 2006 in the Niger Delta in unrest that has reduced the country's 2.6 million barrels per day output by around a quarter.
Most have been freed again after a few days or weeks, often with a ransom paid. Nearly all multinational oil companies have moved expatriate families away from the region, and Britain has urged all its citizens to leave.
- SAPA
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