In an audio recording revealed yesterday, Nigerian kidnapped schoolgirl Leah Sharibu appeals to the government of Nigeria to win her release from Islamic extremist group Boko Haram, according to several published sources.
Boko Haram released more than 100 kidnapped schoolgirls about four weeks after taking them on Feb. 19 but held Leah Sharibu, 15, the kidnapped schoolgirl in question, because she refused to convert to Islam, Morning Star News revealed on March 26.
In the audio recording obtained by a journalist for Nigerian online news outlet The Cable, kidnapped schoolgirl Leah Sharibu says in her native Hausa that she wants the government and “people of goodwill” to rescue her.
“I am begging you to treat me with compassion, I am calling on the government, particularly, the president, to pity me and get me out of this serious situation,” she says on the audio.
CNN today reported that her father, Sharibu Nathan, confirmed that the voice is that of his daughter.
Boko Haram, which seeks to impose Islamic law (sharia) throughout Nigeria, kidnapped the girls from a boarding school in Dapchi, the Government Girls Science Technical College, in northeastern Nigeria’s Yobe state.
President Muhammadu Buhari’s spokesman, Garba Shehu, told CNN that intelligence personnel was analyzing the voice recording and that officials would issue a statement after studying it.
Boko Haram has kidnapped more than 1,000 children in Nigeria since 2013, according to CNN.
About 100 of 276 girls kidnapped by Boko Haram from the town of Chibok, in Borno state, in 2014 are still missing.
Boko Haram, whose name is loosely translated as, “Western education is a sin,” has fought for nine years to impose sharia (Islamic law) on all of Nigeria, killing tens of thousands of people and displacing more than 2 million. Boko Haram militants reportedly warned parents of the returned Dapchi girls not to send their daughters back to school.
In 2015 the Nigerian military began taking back most of the territory Boko Haram had controlled, but many areas remain, and the terrorists are still mounting isolated attacks.
Government analyzing voice that father says is that of his kidnapped schoolgirl daughter.
In the 35-second recording secured by the Nigerian news agency, Ms. Sharibu asks “the government and people of goodwill to intervene” to end her plight. Speaking in Hausa, she urges “members of the public” to assist her parents, younger brother, and relatives, and concludes with a plea for compassion: “I am calling on the government and particularly the president to have pity on me and get me out of this serious situation. Thank you.”
Ms. Sharibu’s family confirmed to Christian Solidarity Worldwide (Nigeria) that the voice on the tape is hers.
The 15-year-old was the only Christian among 110 school girls who were abducted by the al Barnawi faction of Boko Haram from their school in Dapchi in Yobe state, northeast Nigeria, in February 2018. Following negotiations, the other surviving students were released on March 21, but Ms. Sharibu was held in captivity for refusing to convert in exchange for freedom.
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Source: Assist News
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