Rev. Gideon Para-Mallam, a peace advocate, chastised the Federal Government on Monday for failing to secure the release of Leah Sharibu, who celebrated her fifth Christmas in the hands of Boko Haram insurgents.
The activist urged President Muhammadu Buhari and his All Progressives Congress-led government to keep his promise to secure her release.
He also urged stakeholders to "remember that Leah Sharibu is an innocent human being held captive by Boko Haram against her will."
Para-Mallam, President of the Para-Mallam Peace Foundation, expressed his views in a statement titled "Leah Sharibu's 5th Christmas in Captivity: Should We Care or Remain Silent?" obtained by journalists in Abuja.
Prime9jaOnline reported that Sharibu was a 14-year-old Christian girl as of the time she was kidnapped from her school in Dapchi, Yobe State on February 19, 2018.
While others were released, she was held captive because she reportedly refused to denounce Christianity.
The activist said, “On Sunday, December 25, 2022, Leah spent her 5th Christmas in captivity. The Nigerian government has not done enough to free Leah and other Christian girls and women who experience sexual abuse and slavery in various Boko Haram camps in Nigeria. Most of these Christian girls and women, including a few Muslim girls, are held against their will.
The international community needs to do more to free these girls and women. The trauma their parents and families go through is harrowing. Our peace foundation is in touch with some of these parents. I have remained in touch with Leah’s parents and other families. Many are heartbroken. How can Nigerians be so helpless with a government and military in place?
“We urge all men and women of goodwill: Christians and Muslims, to rise for the sake of our common humanity and act in a sustainable way to free these innocent women from Boko Haram’s captivity.
“The Buhari Presidency and the ruling APC like credit to be given to the President in helping to secure the release of some of the kidnapped Chibok school girls back in April 2014. True, they have tried but the truth is this; their effort is frankly too little and very unimpressive. I want to ask, just exactly how many of these Chibok girls are released in the last seven years of this government? Can the numbers be compared with the several hundreds of women and girls who have also been kidnapped by Boko Haram in the last seven years?”
Para-Mallam regretted that while the Federal Government negotiated and secured the release of the remaining Abuja-Kaduna train victims recently, nothing concrete has been done to secure the release of Leah Sharibu and several others.
He sought to know what Buhari or the APC will do to secure the release of the captives before May 29, 2023, when the tenure of this regime ends.
He added, “We have appealed to the President of Nigeria, President Muhammadu Buhari, over and over including a passionate plea by Leah’s mother with President Buhari himself making a promise that he would do everything possible to bring Leah home to her parents.
“This promise was made in October 2018, it’s five years on and Mr President, you have not delivered on your promise. You will soon be handing over and leaving the scene of the presidency of Nigeria. What a befitting gift you can give to this nation and Leah’s family and several other families if you can rescue Leah and the other women and girls in captivity and deliver them home and hand Leah and others to their parents.”