Margaret Hill - Home with parents
Debunking my scepticism
Earlier this evening, I viewed with healthy scepticism the assurance from the Governor of Rivers State in Nigeria that the 3-year old Margaret Hill would be released to her parents by the morning.
The news also said the police knew of where the girl was being held - I said a silent prayer hoping the police don't do something silly and endanger the life of the girl.
So, it is with great relief that we have now been informed that Margaret Hill has been released and been reunited with her parents with no ransom paid.
The release is really good news and one can only say let the process of healing begin from the trauma of being kidnapped at gunpoint and hosted in some hostile environment being fed plain bread and water.
We can only hope that she would mercifully be spared the nightmares of her ordeal and even forget the episode as the love and care of her family and relations overflow in comforting her and help her recover.
Handsome ransom?
The story of no ransom being paid does leave me a bit unconvinced; I once had to sign a release form for my employees' release from police custody saying I had paid nothing when in fact I had paid a large amount of cash to secure their release to the police.
The quest for money is an unquenchable pursuit that feeds the madness of this mendicancy, men who have sold their souls to perpetrate despicable evil purveying menace for monetary gain through unwarranted duress, it beggars belief that those brigands and criminals would part with their captive without something in the bargain considering the reckless abominable activity they indulged in.
Capture, censure and condemn them
This should not be the end of the matter, the story should not end with the good news of the girl's release; all the people who were involved in this criminal act should and must be brought to book.
It reads with great discomfort that it has taken the abduction of a British/Nigerian girl to highlight the fact that this is the third child kidnapped for ransom in the same locality - we need the firm hand of the law to deal a complete blow to this intolerable and unacceptable development.
Just like Jesus was minded to have a millstone put round the neck of any offender of children before they are thrown in a lake; I can made the exception of the death penalty being visited on these condemned and damned people - a mediaeval torture chamber is too good for these people and the sooner they are removed from society the sooner we can get back to tackling the real issues in the Niger Delta region.
At this time of good news for one family, I remember Madeleine McCann, hope she is safe and alive and pray that her parents can receive such good news - the finding and reuniting - as the Hills have had this weekend.
Other Related Blogs
Child in Niger Delta Kidnapping and Death Threat
Reasoning out the girl's kidnap
I still maintain as I have in my blog that no one is trying to discuss the
big issue at hand. How did the Niger Delta produce these pseudo terrorists?
I was not aware of the spread of Islamic fundamentalism into the Niger
delta. So I guess that I really do learn things from all of this blogging
after all!
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