Leah Sharibu
According to Sunday Punch, the family of Christian teenage schoolgirl
abducted by Boko Haram terrorists in 2018, Leah Sharibu, has described reports that she had a baby boy in captivity as a rumour.
A senior lecturer at the Department of Political Science, University of
Jos, Dr. Gloria Puldu, who speaks for the family, also told Sunday Punch
on Saturday that all they wanted was to have Leah home alive, with or
without a baby.
Some media reports had earlier reported that Leah had a baby for a Boko
Haram commander in Niger Republic and that she would have been released
some months ago but for her pregnancy.
Dismissing the reports, Puldu said, “I have seen reports that Leah
had a baby boy. That is just a rumour as far as we are concerned. What
we even desire is to see a proof of life so that we see Leah by
ourselves. If they are able to have Leah safe, we will understand.
“The most important thing is that we want her to be alive. And if she is
alive, we will praise God for that. They should release her, despite
whatever condition she is in. That is all; it doesn’t matter whether she
is pregnant or with a baby. Is it not better to have your child alive?
So, it doesn’t matter, all we are interested in is her life and safety.”
Puldu also noted that they had unconfirmed information that Leah was still alive.
She said, “I spoke with Jennifer, who was in Boko Haram captivity,
last Monday or Tuesday. I was able to speak with her one-on-one and she
told us that she did not see Leah in captivity, but she was with Alison
Gada, who informed her that Leah was alive, healthy and not dead.”
Incidentally, President of Ekklesiyar Yan’uwa a Nigeria (Church of the
Brethren), Rev Joel Billi, told one of our correspondents that a
journalist who has access to Boko Haram, Ahmad Salkida, told him Leah
had become a mother.
The cleric said he got the call from Salkida on the same day the
journalist announced the execution of the Chairman of the Christian
Association of Nigeria in Michika Local Government Area of Adamawa
State, Rev Lawan Andimi, by Boko Haram.
He said he had known Salkida as a young boy while he was a pastor in Biu.
Billi said, “Ahmed Salkida, whom I knew as a young boy when I was a
pastor in Biu, called me to inform me that Andimi had been gruesomely
murdered.
“I was also told by Ahmad Salkida that Leah Sharibu had given
birth to a baby. I was devastated. I was staggering and almost fell down
because I was shocked to hear that. I couldn’t absorb the shock because
Leah Sharibu had become a symbol of the Christian faith. I consider her
Christian faith stronger than even that of many church leaders. When I
heard that Leah Sharibu was now a mother, I had to ask more than three
times just to be sure. Ahmad Salkida said, ‘Leah Sharibu is now a
mother.’”
Leah was among 110 schoolgirls abducted on February 19, 2018 by Boko
Haram terrorists from Government Girls’ Science and Technical College,
Dapchi in Yobe State.
In March 2018, the Federal Government announced the insurgents had
returned 106 of the kidnapped schoolchildren but that Leah was not among
them.
It was reported that Leah, who was 14 years old at the time she was
kidnapped, w as not released because she refused to convert to Islam.