Dapchi Update: Leah Sharibu Not Released, Shocking Details Revealed

Below are highlights of a debrief with one of the recently released girls

1. BOKO HARAM LET THE GIRLS COOK TO BUILD TRUST

Q. Were you the ones cooking or did they cook for you?

Dapchi Schoolgirl: We are they ones cooking for ourselves because they said “these children may say we will poison them.” We eat 30 bags of rice plus maize grits in our three weeks stay.

Five of us died on our way going. They only gave break fast and dinner no lunch. They five of us that died were buried in one grave – all of them in the same day. And they advised us not to reveal that we were they ones that killed them. But we said that we didn’t do anything to them. They just died on their own.

Q. Did they wash them before burying them ?

Dapchi Schoolgirl: No, they were just buried with their blood like that and they just pushed sand on them.

2. SCHOOLGIRLS CONFRONTED SOLDIER WHO WITNESSED ABDUCTION BUT DIDN’T RESCUE THEM

Q. but the governor said that you were in Gaidam and even brought one Canter Truck that they said it was the car that took you?

Dapchi Schoolgirl: It was all lies, we passed Gaidam. Boko Haram even asked us “where is the army?” and we said there is no army in Dapchi. They said “it’s a lie there is.”

On our way to Abuja (to see President Buhari) we asked one of the soldiers “where were (they) when Boko Haram abducted us?” He answered that they were seeing us while Boko Haram was taking us. And the reason why they didn’t follow us is that Boko Haram will kill them. Then one of the girls asked him, “you were seeing us being taken away, what is the use of your work?” And he kept silent. “You only know corruption” she said.

3. CHRISTIAN SCHOOLGIRL LEAH SHARIBU WAS SUBJECTED TO IMMENSE PRESSURE ON MULTIPLE LEVELS

Q. Where is that Christian girl (Leah)?

Dapchi Schoolgirl: We left her there.

Q. Why?

Dapchi Schoolgirl: It’s because she refuses to be a Moslem.

Q. Was she crying while you were leaving?

Dapchi Schoolgirl: Yes, I even begged Leah to accept Islam but she refused and said she can’t live with herself if she converted and came back. So she will not – that it’s better to be killed by Boko Haram.

There’s one old man from Damaturu who is also a Boko Haram that brings us water. He also asked Leah to convert to Islam but she said “no.” Where by the news reached to their commander that there is one Christian girl that refused to accept Islam so they brought her before him. She repeated the same thing, and he said “we will kill you.”  He showed her one temporary zinc and ordered her to go and sit inside.

4. BOKO HARAM HOLDING HUMANITARIAN WORKERS 

Dapchi Schoolgirl: But on our way from Dapchi with the terrorists while going some of us were praying that “let us get into an accident so that we will all die.” Boko Haram captured three Red Cross staff. They showed us where they kept them but didn’t allow us to see them. They said they will hand us to Red Cross  but later they changed their minds and decided to bring us back by themselves. They said that they will release us in exchange with two hundred of their members. They said Buhari said something when he came to Dapchi.

FULL TRANSCRIPT OF THE INTERVIEW WILL BE AVAILABLE ON FACEBOOK PAGE “I AM LEAH” (A page to dedicated to Leah Sharibu https://m.facebook.com/groups/1560987890666262)

C. LEAH’S FAMILY’S RESPONSES

1. Leah’s Father’s messages:

IAMLEAH Interviewer: What message do you have for your daughter?

Father: I want Leah from now henceforth not to deny Christ in any situation of suffering and I want her to endure with what she started to the end.

IAMLEAH Interviewer:  What’s your message to the government?

Father: I am pleading for the government to do the right thing and help, as they do before, for bringing the rest to their parents, to do so to our daughter.

IAMLEAH Interviewer:  What’s your message to those that are praying for Leah?

Father:  I want the Christians to continue praying for Leah, for it is because  of the Christians’ faith in prayers that is why Leah stands in the faith, and I want the Christians not only to pray for Leah, but also the family.

2. Leah’s Mother’s message:

IAMLEAH Interviewer:  What’s your message to the terrorists?

Mother: I said that even if we are told today that they’ve shot Leah, I thank God that Leah is still Christian, and that one day I will see her again.

IAMLEAH Interviewer:  What message to those praying for Leah?

Mother: May God accept and answer all their prayers.

(SEE FULL INTERVIEW AT FACEBOOK I AM LEAH PAGE https://m.facebook.com/groups/1560987890666262)

D. OBSERVATIONS 

1. It appears that the government did not utilize the traditional international interlocutors in this case which may explain the miscommunications and general suspicion surrounding the Dapchi mass abduction. The government should use trusted actors with credible track records to avoid the current credibility crisis its current  saga has engendered.

2. The government could do much better in managing these situations from lessons learned in the Chibok episode up to the present. While some of the girls who escaped abduction were scheduled for relocating to another school yesterday, it is unclear what plans are in the pipeline for the recently released girls.

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E. ADDITIONAL RESOURCES 

Leah Sharibu’s Dad and ECWA Pastor at Palm Sunday Service the day after she wasn’t returned as announced. Churches across Nigeria were called tp pray for Leah yesterday March 25 by the Christian Association of Nigeria CAN

Parents of the released schoolgirls flock to finally receive their daughters from the school after their return from meeting with President Buhari yesterday March 25, 2018