The town of Dapchi is embedded in sorrow and tears as calls have been made to the Federal Government to fastrack action to ensure the release of Leah Sharibu, the only Christian girl still in Boko Haram captivity is released unharmed
The parents through their chairman, Bashir Manzo made the appeal at a special prayer session organized to commemorate one year anniversary of the abduction of Dapchi schoolgirls, held at Leah’s family house in Dapchi town today, February 19, 2019Manzo told DAILY POST that, though parents of Leah were absent at the prayer, they were represented by Helakuri, Leah’s aunt, saying Mrs Rabecca Sharibu travelled to Yola, Adamawa state to join her husband following recent rumour that their daughter was gruesomely killed by the terrorists.
He said that, the prayer brought together Muslim and Christian clerics wearing black and white mufflers while offeriing special supplications to the Almighty God for the safe release of Leah, the only Dapchi schoolgirl still in Boko Haram captivity. “Apart from today’s prayer, we had observed three days fasting, with a view to seeking divine intervention for the release of our daughter (Leah). Despite assurances that Leah is alive and well, we are once again appealing to the Federal Government to rededicate its commitment to salvage our daughter from her captors”, the chairman appealed.
Recall that, on February 19, 2018, Boko Haram terrorist group abducted over 100 students of Government Girls Science and Technical College in Dapchi and were released a month later, leaving Leah Sharibu in captivity. The abduction of the girls had generated global outrage as Nigeria and the world at large had not fully recovered from the kidnapping of over 200 Chibok school girls in neighbouring Borno state before the Dapchi girls were taken.
As Leah Sharibu clocks one year under the captivity of Boko Haram, Reverend Gideon Para-Mallam of the Citizens Monitoring Group (CMG), which works with Muslims and Christians in Nigeria, has described as “tragic and a political miscalculation” for the Presidential candidates in the country to dodge talking publicly about their respective commitment to free Leah and others in captivity.He said their uneasy silence on the plight of Leah and other captives shows how the nation’s political class is “careless” about the people they seek to govern. Para-Mallam, who is the founder of (CMG), in an exclusive interview with DAILYPOST in Jos, the Plateau State Capital, said, “Never did I imagine that the heroine of the Christian faith in the 21st century- 15-year Old Leah Sharibu, would still be in captivity, completing 365 full days on February, 19 2019, making it one year. It’s unbelievable but a reality we are accepting and coping with. Not easy!
SOURCE: DAILYPOST
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