THE brother of the kidnapped toddler Margaret Hill said yesterday that their father would not hesitate to put his life on the line to save the little girl.

Speaking from his Sunderland home for the first time since his stepsister was snatched in Nigeria, David Hill, 33, said he believed the family had been targeted because his father Mike worked in the oil industry.

“The kidnappers have demanded that my dad gives himself up as a hostage before they release Margaret. I know he wouldn’t hesitate to do that but the police commander has told him not to.”

Hill, Mike’s son from his first marriage, said: “He’s quite tough but I know he dotes on Margaret and he’ll be very worried.”

Hill spoke of the family’s anguish over the kidnap. “Margaret is a really happy girl. She is a good talker and big for her age. But she’ll have been left terrified by all this. It will be the first time she’ll have ever been away from her mum and dad.”

Although kidnappings are commonplace in Nigeria, the targeting of a child has caused revulsion among the country’s politicians and among even rebel militants who often resort to taking hostages.

Nigeria’s President Umaru Yar’Adua has intervened personally to call for the three-year-old to be released.

No group has yet claimed responsibility for the abduction, but the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (Mend) – the most prominent armed group in the region which this week ended a month long truce – vowed to find the kidnappers.

“It is an abomination. We will search for the abductors and met out suitable punishment at the appropriate time,” it said.

Mend 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. Other kidnappings are purely criminal, aimed only at extracting a ransom. Security experts working in Nigeria said they believed Margaret’s abduction was “cash-driven”.

The police have ruled out force to free the child, a move supported by her family, who fear she could be killed in crossfire.

In 15 incidents since January 2006, 31 British nationals and more than 180 foreign nationals have been kidnapped in the Niger Delta area and one Briton has been killed.

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