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Leah Sharibu gives birth to second child in captivity: Group

Leah Sharibu was one of the 110 Dapchi schoolgirls abducted by Boko Haram in 2018. She’s being held in captivity for declining to renounce her Christian faith.

• March 23, 2021
Leah Sharibu
Leah Sharibu

A U.S.-Nigeria Law group says it has received an intelligence report that Leah Sharibu, who was among the 110 adopted secondary girls in Dapchi in Yobe State has given birth to a second child.

Convener of the group, Emmanuel Ogebe, in a statement said Ms Sharibu gave birth to the second child last year, disclosing that despite efforts by an American pastor in February to surrender himself in exchange for Leah’s freedom, her abductors have remained mute.

The group while commemorating the return of the Dapchi girls and the abandonment of Ms Sharibu said until Leah is released, she remains a poster and symbol of Nigeria as a failed state that can not protect its children.

The statement said Nigeria was undergoing “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.”

Peoples Gazette learnt Leah and the other girls between age 11 and 19, were abducted by a terrorist group, Boko Haram from Government Girls’ Science and Technical College, Dapchi, on February 19, 2018.

While other girls had since regained their freedom, Leah has continued to remain with her abductors with reports from the terrorist group that she had given birth to a child also in 2020.

The Gazette learnt that both babies were delivered in 2020, a report the U.S.-Nigeria Law group says it is still investigating.

Reports had it that Ms Sharibu was forced to denounce her Christian faith and accept Islam, a request she refused before forcefully married to one of the top Boko Haram commanders.

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