Kidnapped British girl still held in Nigeria: says mother

LAGOS – Nigerian kidnappers are still keeping three-year-old British girl Margaret Hill who was snatched in the oil city of Port Harcourt three days ago, her mother said yesterday.

“My baby is still with them. Her captors just called me on the phone and I could hear the cry of Margaret at the background,” Nigerian-born Oluchi Hill told AFP, sobbing.”My little girl is crying pleading with them that I should be allowed to come and take her home,” she said.”But the kidnappers quickly put off the phone”.Oluchi said on Saturday that the captors had demanded a ransom, a day after threatening to kill the little girl if her father, Michael Hill, did not take her place.”They have asked for money.Who will help me to pay them?” she said.Nigerian security agents have stepped up efforts to secure the release of the toddler who was snatched at gunpoint on Thursday in Port Harcourt in the southern Rivers state as she was being dropped off for school.State police commissioner Felix Ogbaudu said late on Saturday that Margaret might be released within 24 hours.”We have the rumour that she will be released between now and tomorrow,” he told AFP, adding that the police ‘had information’ on the whereabouts of the girl.No group has claimed responsibility for the abduction, the latest to hit the restive Niger Delta, but the main separatist group in the region, MEND, has condemned the kidnapping.Nampa-AFPHer captors just called me on the phone and I could hear the cry of Margaret at the background,” Nigerian-born Oluchi Hill told AFP, sobbing.”My little girl is crying pleading with them that I should be allowed to come and take her home,” she said.”But the kidnappers quickly put off the phone”.Oluchi said on Saturday that the captors had demanded a ransom, a day after threatening to kill the little girl if her father, Michael Hill, did not take her place.”They have asked for money.Who will help me to pay them?” she said.Nigerian security agents have stepped up efforts to secure the release of the toddler who was snatched at gunpoint on Thursday in Port Harcourt in the southern Rivers state as she was being dropped off for school.State police commissioner Felix Ogbaudu said late on Saturday that Margaret might be released within 24 hours.”We have the rumour that she will be released between now and tomorrow,” he told AFP, adding that the police ‘had information’ on the whereabouts of the girl.No group has claimed responsibility for the abduction, the latest to hit the restive Niger Delta, but the main separatist group in the region, MEND, has condemned the kidnapping.Nampa-AFP