A journalist, who has direct access to Boko Haram central command, Ahmed Salkida, has confirmed that abducted Dapchi schoolgirl, Leah Sharibu, has given birth to a baby boy.
However, reports emerged last Saturday night that Leah was forcefully converted to Islam and married off to a top Boko Haram commander, who operates from Niger Republic.
She was also reported to have been delivered of the baby following her forceful marriage.
Confirming the news, Salkida, in a post on his Twitter page, yesterday, said, “Sharibu is now a mother”.
He, however, failed to disclose the gender of the child.
Salkida wrote: “Why, I wonder, do we pretend that leaving Leah behind won’t result in pregnancy?
“Since the terror group announced condemning her to slavery, is there any step or collective focus on preventing similar occurrences? She’s a mother, but I don’t know about the gender of the baby”, Salkida added.
But another source said that Leah gave birth to a baby boy early penultimate Saturday, adding that Leah was delivered of the baby in Niger Republic.
He added that the insurgents had wanted to release her few months ago but couldn’t because she was pregnant.
It would be recalled that Boko Haram had abducted Leah from the Government Girls’ Science and Technical College, Dapchi, Yunusari Local Government Area of Yobe State on February 19, 2018.
The abduction took place at 5:30 pm, when 110 schoolgirls aged 11–19 years old were kidnapped by the terrorist group Bulabulin, in Dapchi.
The kidnapping happened shortly after the military removed a checkpoint close to the school.
On March 21, 2018, the Federal Government announced that Boko Haram terrorists had returned 106 of the kidnapped children, including 104 girls who went to school, one girl who did not and a boy.
Leah, a Christian schoolgirl aged 14 at the time of her capture, is the only remaining Dapchi schoolgirl still held hostage.
Leah was reportedly not released along with the other children, because she refused to convert to Islam.
It is not clear whether Leah will be allowed to go by the terrorists having delivered a child for their commander.
The report will definitely exacerbate the worsening relations between the Muhammadu Buhari administration and the Christian leaders, who have mounted a local and international campaign for the release of Leah.
Last week, one of the aid workers freed by Boko Haram, Jennifer Ukambong Samuel, said Leah Sharibu was alive.
Jennifer, who was working for Action for International Medical Alliance when she was captured in December, last year, said she met another captive of the organization who claimed that Leah was alive and hidden in an undisclosed location at the fringes of Sambisa Forest between Chad and Niger republics.