By Pascal Oparada
The presidential candidate of the Allied Congress Party of Nigeria (ACPN), Dr. Obiageli Ezekwesili, has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to effect the release of kidnap victim, Leah Sharibu and others in Boko Haram captivity.
Sharibu, a female student of the Government Girls’ Science and Technical College, Dapchi, Yobe State, has been held in captivity since February 19, 2018, by the Islamic terrorist group on account of her Christian faith.
In a post on her Twitter handle on Monday, Mrs Ezekwesili wrote, “Dear President @MBuhari, it is with a very burdened heart, that I beg of you this day, to please do everything possible to get #LeahSharibu #Hauwa and #Alice (the #TwoRann humanitarian aid workers) out of the den of their captors today. Give them the justice of rescue. Please.”
Three female health workers were kidnapped during a Boko Haram raid on the remote town of Rann, in Borno State, on March 1 that killed three other aid workers and eight Nigerian soldiers.
Two of the kidnapped women, Hauwa Liman and Saifura Khorsa, worked for the International Committee of the Red Cross, while the third, Alice Loksha, worked for the UN children’s agency, UNICEF.
There had been no news of the trio until last month when the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said it had received footage of Khorsa’s killing from the IS-backed Boko Haram faction of the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP).
ISWAP then threatened to kill Liman and Loksha, as well as the teenager Leah Sharibu, a Christian schoolgirl kidnapped from the town of Dapchi in February.
The killing of Loksha on Monday barely one month after murdering Khorsa is a fulfillment of that threat.
The ICRC had last weekend appealed for the captives’ release and for the jihadists to show mercy, as they were “doing nothing but helping communities” in the conflict-riven region.
It is not clear what informed Ezekwesili’s plea but she said her call was ever so urgent as this week marks the expiration of the deadline given by the insurgents to execute the kidnap victims in their custody.
