AN oil worker from the North-East has spoken of his ordeal after his daughter was returned unharmed by Nigerian kidnappers.

Three-year-old Margaret Hill has returned home, tired, hungry and covered in mosquito bites.

The youngster, who lives in Nigeria with her parents Mike and Oluchi, was snatched at gun- point as she was being driven to school on Thursday.

Mr Hill, who is originally from Murton, County Durham, said no ransom had been paid to secure his daughter's release.

He said: "The pressure is unbelievable, it is difficult to explain. You stop eating and can't think of anything else. You are just worrying all the time.

"I was trying to comfort my wife and she was waking up crying. You can't really explain it."

Mr Hill moved to Nigeria ten years ago and is operations manager for US firm Lone Star.

He also owns a pub called Goodfellas in Port Harcourt, where Margaret attends school.

In the North-East, Mr Hill's family last night expressed their relief at Margaret's safe release.

Her cousin, John Longmoor, 44, a health worker from Tudhoe, near Durham, said: "We are all delighted she has been freed.

"It has been three days, but it felt like three weeks. We have all been praying for her and it feels like a weight has been lifted from our shoulders."

Foreign Office consular staff in Nigeria have been working closely with the authorities throughout the kidnapping and ransom demands.

Foreign Secretary David Miliband said he was delighted and thanked those who worked to secure Margaret's release.

He said: "I was delighted and relieved to hear of Margaret's release.

"I am grateful to the Nigerian authorities for all their help and I hope the perpetrators will be swiftly brought to justice."

It was the first abduction of a foreign child in the increasingly lawless oil region of Africa's biggest oil producer.

Last night, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office said a man from Scotland was one of two foreign workers abducted from a production barge near Calabar in Cross River State late on Sunday.

While two children of wealthy Nigerians have been seized in the Niger Delta in recent weeks, Margaret's kidnapping was the first of a foreign child.

Both Nigerian children were released within days, without injury.

Margaret's abduction, by a group of armed men who smashed a car window to reach her, takes the number of foreigners kidnapped in the region this year to more than 150. Sunday's kidnap is the 21st of those to be British.

Although the trend was started by militant groups making political points about the wealth oil generates not benefiting the local population, in the past two years, many kidnappings have been made by criminal gangs trying to extort ransoms.

Kidnappings in the region, where the crude oil from Africa's biggest producer is pumped, have focused mainly on foreign, male workers of international companies who are presumed to have the resources for ransom payments.

Hostage-takers routinely issue threats over the welfare of their captives, but no hostage has ever been seriously injured by kidnappers while in captivity.

However, David Hunt, 58, a grandfather from Teesside, died during a botched rescue attempt by the Nigerian Navy after he and six other foreign oil workers were taken last year.