Kidnapped girl may be freed in Nigeria

A British toddler kidnapped in Nigeria's volatile oil region may be freed imminently, police said Saturday.

Three-year-old Margaret Hill was kidnapped on her way to school Thursday in the oil industry center of Port Harcourt. Port Harcourt police commissioner Felix Ogbaudu said police have received information on her whereabouts from sources he did not name.

"We have information that she is in Nembe, but nobody can confirm that," Ogbaudu said. "We are also receiving information that she will be released between today and tomorrow."

He gave no further details about the source of the information or police rescue plans. Nembe district is on Nigeria's Atlantic coast, some 95 miles southwest of Port Harcourt.

President Umaru Yar'Adua has instructed security forces to ensure the girl's safe release. Police say they will not use force to free the girl, seized by unknown gunmen while the car taking her to school idled in traffic. It was the first abduction of a foreign child in the increasingly lawless oil region of Africa's biggest oil producer.

Oluchi Hill, the Nigerian mother of the girl, said Saturday the gunmen who kidnapped her daughter have demanded a ransom but refused to say how much cash was sought or who contacted her.

"Where do you expect me to get that type of money?" she asked The Associated Press, weeping during a short conversation.

Oluchi Hill had previously said her daughter was being fed only bread and water and that the gunmen said they would kill the girl if the parents did not meet their demands _ including one that the father take his daughter's place.

The child's British father, Mike Hill, has lived in Nigeria for years and works in the energy industry. He also runs a popular nightspot in Port Harcourt. The British Broadcasting Corp. reported that he was ill and had been due to fly to Britain for unspecified treatment.

The region's main militant group, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, said its fighters would help search for the missing child, and echoed the revulsion many Nigerians feel about the kidnapping of children.

The group has carried out kidnappings to press its demands for a greater political voice and for the region that produces Nigeria's oil to see more of the wealth it generates.

But other kidnappings are purely criminal, aimed only at extracting ransom. There was no indication that politics played a part in the girl's seizure.

Kidnappings in the region have focused mostly on foreign, male workers of international companies presumed to have the resources for ransom payments.

More than 200 foreigners have been kidnapped since militants stepped up their activities against the oil industry in late 2005 and more than 100 expatriates have been seized this year alone as criminal gangs took up the practice.

Two hostages, one British and one Nigerian, died last year when military patrols crossed the hostage takers' paths and a gunbattle ensued.

Hostage takers routinely issue threats over the welfare of their captives, but no hostage has ever been seriously injured by kidnappers while in captivity. More than a dozen foreigners are currently in captivity, including five seized Wednesday from a Royal Dutch Shell oil rig.

Two children of wealthy Nigerians have been seized in the restive Niger Delta in recent weeks. Both were released within days without injury.

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Associated Press Writer Dulue Mbachu contributed to this story from Port Harcourt.