‘Three Years After, Our Daughter Is Not Back’ – Leah Sharibu’s Parents

Nathan and Rebecca Sharibu, parents of Leah Sharibu, one of the 109 schoolgirls abducted from Government Girls’ Science and Technical College, Dapchi, Yobe State, Northeast Nigeria in 2018 by the terror group, Boko Haram, have pleaded with the Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari to ensure her release.

In a document titled,  “Open Letter to President Muhammadu Buhari GCFR,” the aggrieved parents urged the Nigerian president “to genuinely feel their pain and assume that Leah is his daughter.”

In the document by Dr Gloria Puldu, the Executive Director of LEAH Foundation, the distraught parents expressed disappointment that three years after their daughter was abducted alongside others, the president was yet to keep to his words.

“Sir, with deep pains in our hearts but gratitude to God Almighty who commands us to be grateful in every situation, we write this open letter to you concerning our daughter, Leah Sharibu, who as you well know is still in captivity in the hands of Boko Haram,” said Leah’s parents.

“February 19, 2021, marked three years that she was abducted alongside her secondary school mates whom you were able to secure their release on March 21, 2018, barely one month after their abduction.”

“Mr President, you have promised me on the phone that my daughter will soon be released because negotiations are going on and not long, Leah will be returned home. But it has been over two years since you made that promise and Leah is now three years in captivity.”

“Sir, we plead with you to put yourself in our position and assume that Leah is your daughter. How would you feel knowing that she is in captivity just because she was courageous to refuse to renounce her faith?”

After 1,095 days in captivity, the world is still waiting for the safe return of Leah Sharibu who has reportedly been married out to one of the insurgents.

Buhari assured Leah’s parents that she was going to reunite with them as soon as possible as negotiations were going on for her release, a promise he made two years ago.

Leah Sharibu has continued to remain in the terrorists’ den because she refused to renounce her Christian faith while her colleagues were released barely one month after they were taken hostage following negotiations by the government.

Approximately four years before the Dapchi abduction, the surge in kidnappings of school children skyrocketed in 2014 when 276 schoolgirls were abducted in Chibok town, Northeast Nigeria. While most of them have either been released or managed to escape, some still remain in captivity just like Leah.

In Dec. 2020, over 300 hundred schoolboys were abducted from Kankara town, Katsina State in the Northwest.

Also on February 17, 2021, a school pupil was killed and 27 others were abducted by terrorists at about 3 a.m. from their school in Kagara, Niger State, North-central Nigeria.

On 26 Feb. 2021, 279 female students aged between 10 and 17 were also abducted from their school in Zamfara State, few of the girls escaped while the rest were released by their captors on March 2.