The Senate on Thursday asked the Federal Government to expedite action on the freedom of Leah Sharibu, the student of Science Secondary School Dapchi, Yobe State, who has been in captivity of the Boko Haram insurgents since February last year.
A splinter group of Boko Haram insurgents had, on 19 February 2018, abducted 115 girls from the school but released 109 a month after, claiming that five out of the abducted girls died in captivity while Leah Sharibu was held back for refusing to renounce her faith.
Federal and state governments promised Leah’s parents that she would be released from captivity but nothing was being done on the issue 13 months after.
The senator representing Kaduna Central, Shehu Sani, drew the attention of his colleagues to Leah’s plight, through a point of order on Thursday, stressing the need to urge the Federal to expedite action on rescuing the girl.
Sani said, “Fourteen months of Leah Sharibu in the captivity of Boko Haram insurgents and five years of the yet to be released Chibok girls calls for national concern and urgent need by relevant authorities to do all within their powers in getting them released.
“What perhaps may be the most important strategy to be adopted in getting Leah and others out of captivity is the option of dialogue with their abductors.
“It has worked in so many other places where similar abductions took place like Afghanistan, Pakistan and other nations being terrorized by the Taliban.
“Though government cannot be said not to have taken actions in getting Leah and others released, there is the need for it to redouble and expedite actions in that direction.
“This is because parents and relatives of the abductees are freed from psychological trauma they must have been facing and for the abductees to know that they have a country that cares for them”
Sani’s motion was not subjected to debate because it was raised under self-explanation but the Senate President, Bukola Saraki in his remarks, said all efforts must be made by the Federal Government in getting Leah and others released.
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