An aid worker, Grace Taku, abducted by Boko Haram on July 18 has claimed that Leah Sharibu has been killed by the insurgents alongside one Alice because of the Federal Government’s inability to “do something”.
Leah was among the 110 Dapchi schoolgirls kidnapped from Yobe State by the insurgents.
She was the only Christian schoolgirl who was not released by the terrorists after the Federal Government negotiated the release of others.
Taku, according to Sahara Reporters, made the claim in a new video released by the insurgents on Wednesday.
The transcript of her appeal reads: “My name is Grace, I work with Action Against Hunger, an NGO in Borno State; my base is Damasak. We went to work on Thursday, 18th July 2019. On our way going back to Damasak by Keneri/Chamba Ward, we were caught by an army called the Kaliphas and they brought us here. We don’t know where we are.
“I want to beg the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) because I am the only Christian among the six of us here. I want to beg that CAN should please do something about me to see how I can be released. I call on Borno State.
“I beg Action Against Hunger. We have families, some of us have children. We are Nigerians who are working for Nigerians. I am begging please, I am begging again, please do something to see that we are released because this has happened in the Red Cross before where some ladies were caught, Hauwa and Zipporah. They also asked to be released but because of Nigeria did not do anything about it, they were killed.
“I am begging on behalf of all of us. I don’t want such to happen to us and it also happened again with Leah and Alice, because Nigeria could not do anything about them, they were not released they were also killed.”
Meanwhile, the Presidency yesterday said that a new video by an affiliate of Boko Haram created the urgency for the intelligence community to act speedily on current security challenges in the country.
Six Nigerian NGO workers kidnapped in Borno State last week appeared in the hostage video begging for their lives, identifying their captors as militants from the local ISIS affiliate, a group that has previously executed humanitarians.
They appeared in a three-minute video shared online yesterday
President Muhammadu Buhari’s Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, said that the Presidency had been fully briefed about the latest video.
He said: “The Presidency has been briefed by the responsible government agency about the disturbing video showing our citizens, the humanitarian aid workers held captive.”
According to him, the Nigerian government has been given assurances that contact is being made and the captors are being talked to.
He added: “Beside these aid workers, there are some others about whom this engagement is about–Leah Sharibu, a religious leader and all the others.
“These discussions have been ongoing even before this time and what this latest incident has done is to bring urgency to the efforts that the secret service is making.
“Government is making contacts, in the hope that the captors will see reason to not visit hardship or even harm on these innocent individuals. Government is working.”