Men of the underworld have dealt another blow on the family of Leah Sharibu still being held by terrorist group, Boko Haram.
The latest calamity befell the family when the family home in Dapchi was attacked by robbers who carted away family belongings.
According to reports, made available to New Dawn by a human rights lawyer Emmanuel Ogebe, Leah’s mother had just returned from dropping her only son in school for resumption only to discover the break-in and theft of the family’s property.
According to Ogebe, a member of the US Nigeria Law Group based in Washington, the stolen items included the family’s power generating set and food stuff. It is not immediately clear if Leah’s belongings were also carted away during the raid.
It would be recalled that in April, the family also suffered bereavement after losing Leah’s grandmother’s brother which she remains unaware of being in captivity.
In an unrelated development, the family has disclosed that almost seven months after her abduction, no government official from local, state or federal level has reached out to them over their missing daughter.
This was stated in a Voice of America interview after the release of the proof of life audio.
Ironically in the audio recording, Leah specifically pleaded with the general public to assist her family. The theft of their belongings is exactly the opposite of what she desired.
– We enjoin people of goodwill to support the family at this time
– We urge the government of Nigeria to brief the family on the status of their daughter’s release
– We ask the Christian Association of Nigeria to organize a national love offering for the Sharibus for October 1 Independence Services
– We commend British MP Tom Brake for jump-starting the 200 hours vigil to mark 200 days of Leah’s captivity.
– We reaffirm our commitment to support the family per Leah’s expressed wishes and are currently undertaking a needs assessment
– We call on the Victim Support Fund to assist the Sharibu family
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An audio message was recently released to the public which indicated that the abducted Leah is still alive in captivity.
My name is Leah Sharibu, who was kidnapped from G.S.S.T.C Dapchi, I am pleading to the government and people to help me and rescue me out of this situation that I am in, help my mother, my father and my younger brother and my relatives,” the audio message played.
Continuing, the voice recording also played her voice further, “Help me and rescue me out of this situation that I am in. I am pleading to you please help me and pity me and I am pleading to government and the President to pity me and rescue out of this situation I am in. Thank you.”
While the public still wondered if the voie was hers, Leah Sharibu’s mother, Rebecca Sharibu after listening to the tape confirmed it is her daughter’s voice.
“I am Leah’s mother who was kidnapped since 19th February, and today Leah is up to six months and ten days in captivity then by God’s divine arrangement we heard her voice today actually we are very happy,” she said.
Continuing, she said, “At the beginning when I head how she is pleading, I started shedding tears, but later on I took courage and started giving thanks to God, up to six months we never hear her voice we are so eagerly waiting for her to call us and hear her voice but no way and today God made it possible for us to hear her voice.
“We confirm that she is among the living and prayer is working, I am pleading to you and to the President as she is pleading for help, to get her out of the situation she is in. We too are pleading to President Buhari to rescue our daughter and we are very grateful to all the Christians in Nigeria and to all the Christians in the whole world for praying for us, may the Lord God encourage us all,” she prayed.
Leah’s father, Mr. Nathaniel Sharibu also confirmed to VOA Hausa service that the voice in the tape is his daughter’s.
“It was my friends who first sent it to me and I by myself searched it on the Internet. I am very happy for the video of my daughter that I saw,” the elated father said.
He was happy that at last her voice was heard and pleaded for his daughter’s release.
“I heard that she is in good health and she is pleading to the government to rescue her from the situation she is in and I was encouraged about that because that is my concern and I am pleading to government to please take a quick step to rescue my daughter,” he said.
Confirming the voice and video recording, Sharibu said, “Actually this is my daughter Leah, she is the one but you know that the place she is, she is suffering and she will not get enough food to eat but actually this is Leah my daughter, it is her picture and her voice.”
“The family are so disturbed because of Leah’s absence in that family, so I am pleading to people to continue to pray because there prayers towards that family is helping us and let them please talk to the government so that she will be release and come back and join her family,” he added.
The distressed father also complained that the government and the school have not visited the family over his daughter’s abduction.
“Since when they took these children from the school the principal of the school, the chairman of Dapchi, the state government of Yobe and the federal government of Nigeria, none of them asked me about this issue up till now. Non among them asked me about this girl,” he complained.
“I talked through the media, newspapers and other medium to help me talk to these people and truly newspapers reporters, Christians and Muslims did their best but none of them asked me about her.
“None of them has ever told me anything but I usually hear that they are trying to rescue her but as her father no official call to tell me that this is what they are planning in order to rescue her.
“I am calling the attention of President Buhari as a father to Leah, let him help for the release of this girl as fellow students were rescued, let him try his best to see that she is set free like her fellow students because she was not the only student that was kidnapped.
