Rebecca Sharibu Crying For Her Daughter Leah In The White House, Will Trump Console Her?
The Oasis Reporters
June 23, 2019
The man who has done so much to bring Leah Sharibu into global consciousness is Delta born international citizen, Reno Omokri, President Jonathan’s former social media handler in the previous regime.
He wrote the book, ‘Leah Sharibu : The Girl Boko Haram Left Behind’, and it became a number One best seller on Amazon. Within weeks, it grossed one million naira and the entire proceeds went to the bank account of the Sharibu family. Reno Omokri kept no kobo or cent for himself.
Apostle Suleiman heard, and sent another one million naira to the family. Just as many eminent Nigerian citizens, including some large hearted Muslims.
Rebecca Sharibu, Leah’s mother now had money to travel with. The lady who knew more of the dusty north eastern town of Dapchi, frequently visited by Boko Haram Islamist fighters who say girls should not go to school and non Islamic girls should be sold as slaves, suddenly could find her way to the airport and board an aircraft for the first time in her life and jet off to America to sensitize Christian leaders as well as political leaders in the US about the pain in the heart of a mother whose daughter is in captivity in the forest with ferocious terrorists.
Nigerians saw her on global television shows weeping for Leah in Hausa language with a translator in a plea to the United States of America president, Donald Trump to free her daughter from captivity, a feat many believe may be beyond the capacity of Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari to accomplish. Buhari’s own home state of Katsina and neighboring Zamfara State have been overrun by terrorist kidnappers who have been extorting and killing while the people remain on the run.
Rebecca Sharibu is said to have moved from the shadows of talk host TV stations and church organizations to pay a visit to the US White House in an attempt to get the government’s attention towards securing the release of her daughter who was abducted by terrorists, alongside 111 other girls and a schoolboy, on February 19, 2018 in Dapchi town of Yobe State.
Leah was kidnapped two years ago at the age of 14. Although the terrorists released 107 of the 113 originally abducted on March 21, 2018 while five of the remaining six girls were reported to have died while being transported to Boko Haram’s hideout. Leah Sharibu was kept by the militants because she refused to renounce her Christian faith and convert to Islam.
Sharibu is still reportedly in the custody of the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), a faction that broke from Boko Haram in 2016.
Sharibu, who was also threatened with execution, was allowed to send an audio message to the government to secure her freedom.
“I am calling on the government and people of goodwill to intervene to get me out of my current situation.
“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 pleaded.
Despite cries from her family and different Christian groups, Leah is still in captivity and the government is yet to secure her freedom.
It is expected that with this US visit, greater attention would be paid to the issue and the Nigerian government approach to handling the seemingly hard knot of a problem to solve.
Source: Agency report
In-house analysis