Posted by By JACOB EDI, Abuja on
Niger Delta militants who seized a three-year-old British girl on Thursday have made a rather dangerous proposal for her release: they want her British father. Mark Hill, to hand himself in as hostage in exchange for the tot.
Niger Delta militants who seized a three-year-old British girl on Thursday have made a rather dangerous proposal for her release: they want her British father. Mark Hill, to hand himself in as hostage in exchange for the tot.
The little girl's Nigerian mother, Oluchi Hill, who made this revelation after she spoke with the kidnappers on phone said the men threatened to kill her daughter, Margaret, if they do not get a favourable response soon.
Margaret Hill, the daughter of an expatriate worker and his Nigerian wife, was grabbed from a car on her way to school in Port Harcourt, Rivers State at about 7:30 am. The kidnappers smashed a window of the car conveying the girl to school as it was held up in traffic.
Her mother told the BBC that the kidnappers had called her demanding a meeting in a town in the Niger Delta. She said they then allowed her to speak to her daughter who was crying.
Her father Mike Hill, who has lived in the country for 10 years, runs a bar in Port Harcourt.
Mrs Hill said the kidnappers told her to meet them in a town in Bayelsa State but that neither she nor the police had been able to locate it.
"They say I can bring my husband to swap with the baby," she said. "He wanted to go down for his baby but the police commander told him not to."
The kidnappers then threatened to kill Margaret if Mr Hill did not come within three hours, she said.
After the deadline had expired, Mrs Hill said Margaret was being fed just "bread and water".
"The people who are holding her just called again and they were threatening to kill the baby," Mrs Hill was quoted as saying by Reuters news agency.
"They accused me of trying to play games with them."
Incidentally, Mr Hill is said to be ill and had been due to fly to the UK for medical treatment.
Meanwhile, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) has offered to help find the girl. "We will join in the hunt for the monsters who carried out this abduction and mete out adequate punishment for this crime - We abhor all forms of violence against women and children," the group said in an e-mail sent to AP.