Margaret Hill, the three-year-old British girl abducted by
gunmen in southern Nigeria last week, was released on Sunday night
and returned to her parents. She was unharmed apart from a rash of
mosquito bites, and apparently in good spirits as she told
reporters on the telephone that she was "fine".
The little girl, who was seized from a chauffeur-driven car on
her way to school last Thursday, was released after Nigerian
security services piled pressure on the group holding her,
according to her father, Mike Hill. "She's in a bit of a trance,"
he said. "She is covered in mosquito bites. I am going to have to
get her to the clinic, because she will need some injections. She's
been in the bush. And I don't think they fed her very much."
"There was no ransom paid," he told Sky News. "The kidnappers
told my wife to go and meet them. She was released due to the
pressure put on the people by the security services in
Nigeria."
Mike Hill carries
his daughter Margaret after Sunday's release of the three-year-old
in Port Harcourt, Nigeria. She was released four days after being
kidnapped by unknown gunmen who snatched her from the car in which
she was being driven to school.
The gang grabbed Margaret in the Nigerian oil capital, Port
Harcourt, smashing the windows of the car with their weapons and
stabbing the driver in the arm before snatching the child. Her
Nigerian-born mother, Oluchi Hill, received a call hours later
saying they would kill her daughter unless her husband agreed to
swap places with the child. Police advised him against doing so,
while the Foreign Office in London and the Nigerian president,
Umaru Yar'Adua, demanded her safe release.
Hill, who has lived in Nigeria for more than 10 years, is a
British oil industry consultant working for a Texan company, Lone
Star. On Sunday night he let Margaret answer reporters' questions
on the telephone.
"Fine", she replied when asked how she was. "OK", she said when
asked how it felt to see her mother and father again.
It is believed the kidnappers kept her in a small hut in the
Niger Delta, a vast malarial wetlands.
Hill said he never spoke to the kidnappers, who had insisted on
communicating only with his wife because she was seen as the
"weakest link". On Sunday night, speaking from the headquarters of
the state security services, Mrs Hill said: "I am very very
happy."
The Foreign Secretary, David Miliband, said he was "delighted"
that the child was safe and thanked those who worked to secure her
freedom. "I am grateful to the Nigerian authorities for all their
help and I hope the perpetrators will be swiftly brought to
justice," he said. "Foreign Office consular staff in Nigeria have
been working closely with the (Nigerian) authorities throughout
and, of course, Margaret Hill's family, and will continue to
provide consular support as required."
Last month the Foreign Office warned all British nationals not
to go to Port Harcourt or the surrounding core oil-producing region
of Rivers, Delta and Bayelsa states following a spate of
kidnappings in the country's oilfields. Abductions have
increasingly been carried out by criminal gangs demanding
ransoms.
Margaret was the third child to be seized in six weeks, but she
was the first foreign youngster to be abducted.
Since the beginning of this year, 149 expatriates, including
nine Britons, and 21 Nigerians have been abducted. Most have been
released after payment of a ransom. Eighteen are still being held.
Four foreigners and 20 Nigerians have been killed in the course of
abductions.
Hill said the kidnapping would not force him to leave the
country. He added: "I don't have a problem with Nigeria. I think
99% of the people are quite good, but it's the 1% of people that
spoil them."
(China Daily via agencies July 10, 2007)
