HOPE of release of the British toddler, Margaret Hill, who was abducted by gunmen in Port Harcourt on Thursday, heightened last night.
The Rivers State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Felix Ogbaudu, disclosed to The Guardian that there were indications that the captors might release Margaret to her parents last night or today.
According to him: “There are indications that the little girl might be released today (yesterday) or tomorrow (today). But if she is not released, then the search and effort to get her released will still continue.”
This is a reference to the intensified search by security agencies for the three-year-old British girl. The elevated investigation is at the behest of President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, who, at the weekend, promised government’s determination to locate the infant even as he appealed to the kidnappers to free her.
The President, through his spokesman, Mr. Segun Adeniyi, regretted that such incidents were still occurring in spite of the firm commitments of his administration to solving the Niger Delta problem.
“No political or economic grievance could justify the kidnap of a three-year old girl,” the President said and directed the security agencies to make every possible effort to ensure that she was returned to her family unharmed.
Meanwhile, the major militant groups in the Niger Delta have pledged their commitment to ridding the region of individuals or groups that involve in the kidnap of persons.
Speaking on the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), Focus on Africa Programme, monitored in Kaduna at the weekend, the leader of the Niger Delta Peoples Volunteer Force (NDPVF), Mujaheed Dokubo-Asari, announced the readiness of the major militia groups to fight against kidnappings.
He said that they would turn against any group involved in the act.
Relatedly, the Ijaw National Congress (INC) and the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) have condemned Margaret’s abduction and called for her immediate release.
The Rivers State Police Command spokesperson, Deputy Superintendent of Police (Mrs.) Ireju Barasua, told The Guardian yesterday that the whereabouts of the kidnapped girl and the identity of her captors remained unknown.
She explained that security agencies in the state had been collaborating with the intelligence department of the state Police Command to investigate the matter.
According to her: “I spoke this morning (yesterday) to the police investigation department officers, who are handling the matter and they said they are still investigating the case.
“The Police are really working hard to ensure that the child is rescued unhurt to the parents,” Mr. Mike and Mrs. Oluchi Hill.
Gunmen snatched Little Margaret at about 07.30am on Thursday on her way to school. The men, who intercepted the car she was being driven in, smashed a window and dragged her out.
Her father, Mike Hill, who has lived in the country for 10 years and who is said to be seriously ill, was asked by the kidnappers to come and swap his daughter’s position but was discouraged because of his ill health.
Sources close to Mrs. Hill, the Nigerian mother of the kidnapped child, said that the kidnappers at press time were still insisting that the parents part with unspecified amount of money that could run into millions of Naira before the child could be released to them.
Mrs. Hill had, in a telephone interview with The Guardian on Friday, revealed that she had been in touch with the kidnappers of her daughter, who she desperately wants released and unhurt.
Dokubo-Asari stated at the weekend: “We have just finished a meeting on (Thursday) at Okprogha in Warri Southwest in the Western Delta and we have taken a decision.
“The authentic MEND was there; NDPVF was there; DIYC was there. All the major groups in the Niger Delta were there. We have taken far-reaching decisions to make sure these fellows are brought to book.”
He urged the kidnappers to search their consciences since there was always a day of reckoning in this world or in the hereafter.
He, however, pushed the blame of kidnapping to the doorstep of officials of the Federal Government, whom he accused of paying militia groups in the region to carry out the kidnappings.
He also alleged government officials know the people involved in the kidnappings and other crimes in the Niger Delta.
The President of the Ijaw National Congress (INC), Professor Kimse Okoko said yesterday that the Ijaws, in strongest terms, condemned the abduction of an absolutely innocent three-year-old child and had called on the perpetrators of this evil deed to release the child to the parents.
Okoko described the kidnappers as criminals and not fighters for the cause of the Niger Delta, which is now being painted in bad light in the eyes of the world.
He said: “We have no business kidnapping anybody talkless of kidnapping an innocent child. What crime has the girl committed against the Niger Delta?”
He explained that the INC abhors kidnapping and hostage-taking because it makes the Niger Delta to lose the support and sympathy of the international community.
While calling on those involved in the abduction of expatriates and children to desist from such misdeeds; Okoko appealed to groups like the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) and security agencies to use all resources at their disposal to fish out Margaret’s kidnappers and ensure that they are prosecuted.
Similarly, the President of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP), Mr. Ledum Mitee, has joined others in the condemnation of the kidnap of Margaret and called for her release.
The Ogoni activist, who described the abduction of children as a frightening dimension in the hostage-taking crisis in the Niger Delta, said there could never be any justifiable reason for Margaret’s kidnap other than for ransom.
“We have reached a frightening dimension. Even in war, you don’t kidnap children. For instance, despite all the chaos and breakdown of law and order in places like Iraq and Somalia, they don’t kidnap children and women. This is criminal and we condemn it,” he said.
Mitee urged the government to investigate persons including security agencies involved in negotiation and payment of ransom to kidnappers for the release of expatriates and other abducted persons.