North child kidnapped in Nigeria

Jul 5 2007 By Graeme Whitfield

The three-year-old daughter of an ex-pat North East oil worker has been reportedly kidnapped in Nigeria.

Margaret Hills was plucked from a car driving her to school in Port Harcourt, in the south of the country.

Sources in Africa say her father Mike Hill grew up in the North-East but moved to Nigeria and is operations director for US firm Lone Star.

He also runs a bar in Port Harcourt called Goodfellas. Mr Hill and his Nigerian wife were this afternoon reportedly being offered assistance by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

It is not yet clear whether a ransom is being offered for Margaret's return.

She was taken from a car that was driving her to school at around 7.30am.

Reports say five men smashed the windows of the car she was in and took her.

The driver was also reportedly stabbed in the arm but neither Mr or Mrs Hill were thought to be in the car. Mr Hill is believed to be originally from Sunderland.

Five ex-pat workers of Lone Star were also kidnapped yesterday and it is not clear whether the two incidents are linked. The Foreign Office currently has warning to all ex-pats telling them to leave the area because of the spate of snatches.

Kidnappings for ransom are very common in Port Harcourt, located in the oil-producing Niger Delta in southern Nigeria, although abductions of children are rare.

In some past abductions, details given by Nigerian authorities early on have later turned out to be inaccurate.

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. Most abductions are for ransom although a few have been politically motivated.

Several armed groups in the Niger Delta are campaigning for "resource control" or the right of impoverished local communities to gain greater control over oil revenues from their lands. These groups have sometimes kidnapped oil workers in the name of the struggle for resource control.

But abductions have become more and more frequent as copy-cat kidnappers have taken advantage of the breakdown of law and order in the delta to extort hefty ransoms.

Oil industry union representative Graham Tran has been calling on oil companies to withdraw staff because of the risks.

He said: "If it is confirmed it certainly takes the whole focus and safety for workers and their families to another level. Following strong warnings from the Foreign Office, companies should have got their workers and families out of Nigeria."

The targeting of women and children is uncommon, however, with attackers generally focusing on male employees of large, international companies that are presumed to have money for ransom payments.

Hostages are generally released unharmed after a ransom is paid - often by state governments that control huge, unregulated security slush funds, according to industry officials. At least two hostages have been killed in the crossfire when security forces crossed the kidnappers.

Yesterday, 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. Royal Dutch Shell said it owned the rig, but that there were no production cuts reported.

The two New Zealanders were identified as Bruce Klenner and Brent Goddard by Klenner's wife, Linda.

The New Zealand government has ruled out paying any ransom for the pair.