Nigerian abductors 'will kill British child'

Kidnappers in Nigeria have threatened to kill a three-year-old British girl unless her father takes her place, the child's mother said.

Margaret Hill was snatched when her captors smashed a window of the Jeep she was heading to school in as it sat in heavy traffic in Port Harcourt, in the south of the country. Her Nigerian driver was stabbed several times in the arm.

The little girl's mother, Oluchi Hill, a Nigerian national, said the kidnappers called and and demanded a meeting in a town in the Niger Delta. She was then allowed to speak to her crying daughter.

Mrs Hill said the kidnappers told her to meet them in a town in Bayelsa State, but police were unable to locate it. They have since contacted her again and demanded that Margaret's father, oil worker Mike Hill, take her place.

She said: "They say I can bring my husband to swap with the baby. He wanted to go down for his baby but the police commander told him not to." Mrs Hill said Margaret's kidnappers were feeding her on bread and water.

Mr Hill has lived in Nigeria for ten years and is originally from Murton in Co Durham. He works for US oil-supply firm Lone Star while his wife runs a bar in Port Harcourt called Goodfellas.

A Foreign Office spokeswoman said: "We do not know who took her. We are in contact with her parents and are providing assistance. High Commission officials are in contact with the Nigerian authorities. We call for her immediate safe release."

Kidnappings have become an almost weekly occurrence in the south of the country, where many foreign oil workers are based and over a dozen foreigners are currently in captivity with more than 200 taken since the end of 2005.

Hostages are generally released unharmed after a ransom is paid - often by governments that control huge, unregulated security slush funds.

But despite the increasing kidnappings, the targeting of women and children is uncommon, with attackers generally focusing on male employees of large oil companies.

Margaret's abduction brings the total number of ex-patriot workers kidnapped in the Niger Delta this year to 150 - 20 of those have been British.

On Wednesday, gunmen attacked an oil rig in the southern oil heartland and seized five expatriate workers: an Australian, two New Zealanders, one Lebanese and one Venezuelan.

© Independent Television News Limited 2007. All rights reserved.

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