NIGERIA: Police chief visits Port Harcourt as work begins behind scenes on arranging release of British toddler seized in the Niger Delta

Record ID: 234713

  • Title: NIGERIA: Police chief visits Port Harcourt as work begins behind scenes on arranging release of British toddler seized in the Niger Delta
  • Date: 7th July 2007
  • Summary: POLICE OFFICER CALLS FOR QUESTIONS FROM THE PRESS SOUNDBITE (English) MIKE OKIRO POLICE CHIEF, SAYING: "It's a new dimension to hostage taking in this part of the world, it's a criminal act, there's nothing whatsoever should it be used for political agitation by youths of Niger delta. These criminals who are kidnapping people, raping children should be dealt with as criminals and should be arrested." POLICE CHIEF AND OFFICERS IN FRONT OF GOVERNMENT HOUSE
  • Embargoed: 22nd July 2007 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Nigeria
  • Country: Nigeria
  • Topics: International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVA4L6I92DEB7FD9ESSRO2N4Y7AC
  • Story Text: Police chief visits Port Harcourt and calls the kidnapping of a child a new dimension in hostage taking in the Niger Delta.

    Contacts began on Friday (July 6) 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 Goodfellas, a bar in the relatively affluent 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 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.
    But most abductions are for money. Copycat kidnappers have taken advantage of the breakdown of law and order in the delta to extract hefty ransoms.
    "It's a new dimension to hostage taking in this part of the world, it's a criminal act, there's nothing whatsoever should it be used for political agitation by youths of Niger delta. These criminals who are kidnapping people, raping children should be dealt with as criminals and should be arrested," said Mike Okiro, Nigeria's chief of police, who happened to be in Port Harcourt on Friday.
    The girl's abduction is the third child kidnapping this year, according to local media.
    Britain advised all its nationals on June 8 to leave three core states in the Niger Delta because of rising insecurity, including Rivers State, where Port Harcourt is located.
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