A US-Nigeria Law Group on Wednesday claimed that one of the yet-to-be released abducted Government Girls’ Science and Technical College, Dapchi, girls, Leah Sharibu has given birth to a second child while in Boko Haram captivity.
E247 reports that the girls numbering about 110, were abducted by the dreaded Boko Haram set in their school premises on February 19, 2018.
While the Federal Government secured the release of other girls from their captors, Leah Sharibu was left out apparently for her refusal to adopt a new religion.
However, three years and five weeks since her abduction in Dapchi, Yobe State, a United States-based group,has lamented the plight of the abandoned Dapchi “heroine Christian” schoolgirl, Leah Sharibu, with reports she has given birth to a second child in captivity.
Leah Sharibu, still held in captivity, was forced to accept Islam before being married off to a top Boko Haram commander after she refused to renounce her Christian faith.
She was among 110 girls, aged between 11 and 19 years, who were abducted by the terrorists from their school.
The convener of the US-Nigeria Law Group, Emmanuel Ogebe, in a statement said “Despite an offer by an American pastor last month to surrender himself in exchange for Leah’s freedom, there has been no tangible response from her captors.
“That notwithstanding, intelligence received on the status of Leah indicates that she has delivered a second child in captivity. While we have not corroborated this by multiple sources, a usually knowledgeable source indicated that she delivered a second child late last year.
This means both children were born in 2020 as the terrorists announced her childbirth earlier in 2020. We are still investigating this.
The Guardian newspaper on January 1, 2019, named Leah Sharibu as its 2018 ‘‘Person of the Year,’’ aptly describing her as “A goddess of resistance”.
To commemorate the March 21 3rd anniversary of the release of the Dapchi girls returned by their captors and “abandonment of Leah Sharibu”, the US group in its commemorative statement, said “Until she is released, Leah remains a poser child and symbol of a failed state that can’t protect its children.
The group also lamented the “full-scale onslaught on education in Nigeria by Islamist extremists: Boko Haram wars against education; bandits mass kidnap of children in school; and religious violence against Christian mission school owners in Ilorin over hijab controversy.”
