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Nigerian gunmen want US$78,600 for kidnap victim

Nigerian gunmen have demanded 10 million naira (US$78,600) for a three-year-old boy they snatched on his way to school in the lawless Niger Delta, relatives of the toddler said yesterday.

The boy's abduction on Thursday came just four days after a British girl of the same age was released by her kidnappers in the same area.

Abductions for ransom are commonplace in the Niger Delta, but children were rarely targeted until the past month, which saw three child kidnappings.

Local rights activists fear copycat criminal gangs may have seized on the idea of child abductions as the latest strategy to extort hefty ransoms.

Police have named the boy as Francis Samuel Amadi, the son of a traditional ruler in the community of Iriebe on the outskirts of Port Harcourt.

The boy was on his way to a private school in Port Harcourt when the kidnappers blocked his car with their own and snatched him, leaving the driver behind.

"Four gunmen blocked the jeep. They smashed the windshield and took the boy away," said Azubuike Ihemeje, an aide to the boy's father. "The chief is highly devastated."

On Sunday, unknown ransom seekers released three-year-old Margaret Hill unharmed after four days in captivity. Gunmen had abducted Hill on July 5 from the car in which she was being driven to school in Port Harcourt.

The girl's family and authorities in Rivers state, where Port Harcourt is located, said no money had been paid.

Last month, the three-year-old son of a member of the Rivers state House of Assembly was also kidnapped. Nigerian newspapers reported that a ransom had been paid to obtain his release.

The Niger Delta accounts for all of Nigeria's oil wealth but five decades of oil extraction have polluted the region and fueled systemic corruption in government to the point that basic public services have collapsed.
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