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PORT HARCOURT - A Nigerian 3-year-old boy has been released by his kidnappers one day after he was snatched on his way to school in the lawless Niger Delta, the boy's father said today.
"I'm happy that my son has been released. He's on his way to the palace now," his father, Eze Francis Amadi, told Reuters by telephone.
Police identified the boy as Francis Samuel Amadi, the son of the traditional ruler in the community of Iriebe on the outskirts of Port Harcourt, the delta's main city.
The kidnappers had demanded 10 million naira for the child, relatives of the toddler said earlier.
A family spokesman said no ransom was paid to gain his release.
New Zealanders Bruce Klenner, 47 and Brent Goddard, 49, were released this week, along with three other hostages, after being taken at gunpoint from a Shell Oil drilling rig in the Niger Delta where they were working, and held for over a week.
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 copy-cat criminal gangs may have seized on the idea of child abductions as the latest strategy to extort hefty ransoms.
The boy attends a private school in Port Harcourt and he was being taken there by the family driver when the kidnappers blocked the car with their own and snatched him, leaving the driver behind.
The abduction on Thursday came just four days after a British girl of the same age was released by her kidnappers in the same area.
On Sunday night, unknown ransom seekers released 3-year-old Margaret Hill unharmed after four days in captivity. Gunmen had abducted the toddler 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.
In June, the 3-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 fuelled systemic corruption in government to the point that basic public services have collapsed.
Some rebel groups have kidnapped oil workers and attacked oil facilities in an increasingly violent campaign for "resource control", or local power over oil wealth. Nigeria's oil output is down by more than 20 per cent because of these attacks.
But many criminal gangs have used the struggle for resource control as a cover for lucrative activities such as abductions for ransom and smuggling of stolen crude.
The government as well as the political armed groups all condemn the "commercialisation" of hostage taking.
About 200 adult expatriates have been seized in the Niger Delta since the start of 2006 and most of them have been released unharmed in exchange for money.
At least 11 foreign hostages are still being held by various armed groups in the delta.
- REUTERS
