Kidnappers demand money for British girl

Contacts began yesterday to try to win the release of a British toddler seized by kidnappers who have threatened to kill her unless they are paid ransom.

Three-year-old Margaret Hill was snatched on Thursday morning from a car as she was being driven to school in Port Harcourt in the oil-producing Niger Delta.

Abductions for ransom are very frequent in the Niger Delta, although children are rarely taken.

Kidnappers have threatened to kill hostages before but have not done so and the victims are usually released unharmed in exchange for money.

The girl's mother Oluchi Hill said the kidnappers had called to demand money. The amount was not clear.

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, weeping as she spoke.

The caller "said he doesn't care about killing and burying the baby", she said.

Later, the parents issued a statement through the Foreign Office in London asking media to let them work with others to try to quickly bring their daughter back safely.

"You are well aware of the effects that this terrible situation will be having on us as a family," it said.

The child's father Mike Hill is a British consultant who has lived in Port Harcourt for many years. Oluchi Hill, who is Nigerian, runs Good fellas, a bar in the relatively affluent GRA neighbourhood of the city.

Good fellas was attacked in August 2006 by armed men who kidnapped several expatriates. Mrs Hill had the bullet holes in the ceiling of the bar painted over, but business slowed after that.

President Umaru Yar'Adua appealed for the immediate release of Margaret Hill and of all other hostages in the Niger Delta, saying he was deeply concerned that kidnappings were still taking place despite his efforts to solve the delta's problems.

"He believes that no political or economic grievance can possibly justify the recourse to the kidnapping of an innocent three-year-old child," said a statement from Yar'Adua's office.

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.

Some militants have taken hostages to press their demand for impoverished local communities to be given control over oil revenues from their lands.

Five decades of oil extraction have enriched corrupt politicians and foreign oil firms rather than residents.