A United States-based group, US-Nigeria Law Group, has alleged that the Dapchi “heroine Christian schoolgirl,” Leah Sharibu has given birth to a second child in Boko Haram captivity.
It would be recalled that 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 Government Girls’ Science and Technical College, Dapchi, on February 19, 2018.
Convener of the US-Nigeria Law Group, Emmanuel Ogebe, said in a statement that “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 the March 21 third anniversary of the release of the Dapchi girls returned by their abductors and “abandonment of Leah Sharibu,” the US-based group said: “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 “Islamic extremists.”
The Guardian had on January 1, 2019, named Leah Sharibu as its 2018 ‘‘Person of the Year,’’ describing her as “a goddess of resistance.”
