Three years and five weeks since her abduction in Dapchi, Yobe State, a United States-based group, US-Nigeria Law Group, has revealed that Leah Sharibu has given birth to her second child in captivity of Boko Haram.
Leah was among 110 girls, aged between 11 and 19 years, who were abducted by terrorists from Government Girls’ Science and Technical College, Dapchi, on February 19, 2018.
It would be recalled that while many of them were released, Leah was held in captivity andforced to accept Islam before being married off to a top Boko Haram commander after she refused to renounce her Christian faith.
In 2020, there were reports that after she got married as a teenager, Leah gave birth to a child for a Boko Haram top commander.
Leah, according to Sahara Reporters, said she gave birth ‘a few weeks ago’ while other news outlets alleged she gave birth in Niger Republic on January 25, 2020.
According to Guardian, convener of US-Nigeria Law Group, Emmanuel Ogebe, has spoken about her condition after over three years in captivity.
He 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.
To commemorate third anniversary of the release of Dapchi girls returned by their captors on March 21 and “abandonment of Leah Sharibu”, the US group in its statement stated;
Until she is released, Leah remains a poster 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.”
