BY VICTOR BUORO, ABUJA – Heroine Christian Schoolgirl, Leah Sharibu, the sole remaining hostage of the 2018 Dapchi school mass abductions, marked her 150th days in dreaded Boko Haram captivity.
Leah was abducted on February 19, 2018 but was not released alongside her Muslim classmates a month later. She has been held back for 120 days since the release of her mates five months after.
This is just as protests around Nigerian embassies in world centers took centre stage this week over the killings in Nigeria which has continue to gain attention.
On Friday July 13, simultaneous protests held at the Nigerian embassy in Washington USA and its consulates at New York and Atlanta respectively.
The protesters that lamented the recent massacres in Plateau were organized by the Plateau State Association in US (PSA) just as on Wednesday July 18, protestors thronged the Nigerian embassy in London to demand the release of Leah Sharibu on her 150 day captivity.
The protest which was organized by the Christian Solidarity Worldwide witnessed the London protest featured more Britons than Nigerians.
Also in Netherlands, protestors rallied against the massacres of members of the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra in a protest organized by IPOB to coincide with General Buhari’s visit to the ICC.
A statement by Barrister Emmanuel Ogebe said the protesters commended the Nigerian Army on the capture of Boko Haram terrorists that were involved in the abduction of Chibok Schoolgirl in 2014, adding that based on their evaluation of the profiles of the arrested terrorists, most of those who confessed to participating in the Chibok attack are in their earlier 20s.
Ogebe said; “This means they were about 16 years old at the time of the abductions in April 2015. This is consistent with evidence we had gleaned from our investigation of the crime as some of the Chibok girls informed us that their attackers included young boys who were “smaller than” them.
“An escaped Chibok girl told us that one of their captors was riding around on a bike, during the siege of their school, with a gun slung over his shoulder. She believes that he found the bike during the raid of their staff quarters.
“It is therefore indeed plausible and consistent with our findings that these confessed attackers were part of the abductions.
“We ask that the government not only ensure justice but also extract their cooperation to recover the 100 missing girls.
Meanwhile, the United Kingdom (UK) Government has denied knowledge of villages occupied by Fulani Herdsmen in Plateau State.
Responding to parliamentary questions written by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office with regards to assessment made by her Majesty’s Government on the recent disclosure during a plenary session of the Nigerian House of Representatives that 52 villages in four local government areas in Plateau State have been occupied by the herder militia responsible for the deaths of 238 residents of those villages, said they are deeply concerned about the escalating violence in parts of the Central and Middle Belt regions of Nigeria, including in Plateau State.
It noted that the situation is complex just as access to information is limited, adding that the UK Government is not able to verify whether villages in Plateau State have been occupied by herders.
The UK Government further said that it welcome President Buhari’s strong condemnation of the violence and his commitment to bring the perpetrators to justice and therefore called for solutions that meet the needs of all affected communities and prevent further violence.
