Leah Sharibu: The Girl Boko Haram Left Behind

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Amazon Number One Bestselling Author (Conspiracy Theory) of FACTS Versus FICTION: The True Story of the Jonathan Years

LEAH SHARIBU: The Girl Boko Haram Left Behind

Reno Omokri “Leah Sharibu is another Malala Yousafzai. I greatly admire her faith in God through Jesus, which she refused to deny, even at pain of death. I appeal to Boko Haram to please release her” -Mike Cernovich US Writer and Filmmaker

LEAH SHARIBU: The Girl Boko Haram Left Behind

Reno Omokri

Introduction

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herlock Holmes, the fictional English Detective created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, is famous for saying “Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth.” This phrase has guided many an investigation and has led to the unearthing of many truths, many shocking ones. It is a principle I have followed in my career as a seeker of truth and it was central to getting to the truth of the Dapchi Girls abduction which occurred on February 19, 2018. It is my belief, for instance, that it is impossible that the Dapchi Girls, including Leah Sharibu, could have been abducted if their town and school was guarded by the officers and men of the Nigerian Army stationed in Dapchi. It is also impossible that those soldiers, who strangely withdrew from Dapchi a few hours to the kidnap, would have done so on their own volition without an order from above. Thus, by a process of eliminating the impossibilities in the equation, the truth becomes clear that whoever ordered the withdrawal of the troops in Dapchi, only hours before Boko Haram invaded the town and abducted Leah and her colleagues, must have been aware of Boko Haram’s plans, especially as we will show that the Nigerian government received an intelligence tip a day before the abduction of the Dapchi girls of Boko Haram’s intentions. When you take all of these into account, the only logical conclusion you can reach is that there was some major collusion between elements of the Nigerian government and the radical Islam terror group, Boko Haram that led to the Dapchi incident. So who are these colluders? What are their motives? Why were they willing to use the Dapchi Girls and especially Leah Sharibu as collateral damage in their sinister activities? These and other questions are what this book sets out to answer.

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In answering these questions, I interviewed Leah’s parents, her sibling, her pastor, and members of the Dapchi community in which she lived and was brought up. I also approached foreign intelligence assets, as well as journalists with insider knowledge of the workings of Boko Haram, one of whom is Ahmed Salkida, the man who correctly predicted Boko Haram’s behaviours before, during and after the earlier Chibok Girls abduction of 2014. But, even as I try to answer these questions, I want the world to know that there is a young girl who is still being held captive by Boko Haram simply because she refused to abandon her faith in God through Jesus Christ. Her name is Leah Sharibu, and she is the heroine of whom this book is all about. I was at the US Congress on Thursday, February 2, 2017, to attend a discussion on the very real threats Christianity in Nigeria and how they could be addressed. At that event, Congressman Christopher H Smith, who was then the Chairman of the U.S. House Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights, and International Organizations, told me and others present at that event that Nigeria is “the most dangerous place for Christians in the world”. When the international media reported Congressman Smith’s views, the Nigerian government denounced it and rejected the notion that Nigeria is the most dangerous place to practice Christianity in the world. A year later, Boko Haram kidnapped the Dapchi Girls. A month later, all the girls left alive (104 of them) were freed except Leah. Because she is a Christian. Because she refused to abandon Christ. Since 2015, the Council on Foreign Relations approximates that 20,000 Nigerians have died at the hands of radical Islamic terror groups including Boko Haram and Fulani Herdsmen (who are not classified as terrorists by the Nigerian government led by President Muhammadu Buhari, himself a Fulani tribesman, though they have killed more people over the last three years than Boko Haram). Most of their victims (but not all) have been Christians - killed, maimed and terrorized because of their faith in God through Christ Jesus.

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In a 48-page report released in 2018 and titled “Crushed but Not Defeated: The Impact of Persistent Violence on the Church in Northern Nigeria,” Open Doors, the non-profit group, revealed that 13,000 churches have been destroyed in the ongoing jihad by radicals in some parts of Nigeria. Very few people are speaking for these forgotten Christians in Northern Nigeria who are literally going through hell on earth. I am determined to speak for them and to speak for Leah. In his book, The Divine Comedy, Dante Alighieri said: “The hottest places in Hell are reserved for those who in time of moral crisis preserve their neutrality.” How can I be neutral when a fourteen-year-old girl (Leah turned fifteen in Boko Haram’s captivity) continues to face daily threats on her life for no other reason than that she believes in God through Christ Jesus? I also have a daughter. As at the time of writing this book, my daughter is thirteen. What if it had been her? My daughter is an American citizen only because she was born in America. If I had not taken the conscious decision to have her in the United States, she would have been a Nigerian citizen and who knows, it could have been her instead of Leah. Would I have been content with the way the Nigerian government and the media appear to have forgotten about Leah if she was my daughter? Would life simply go on for my family, friends and I? I would like to think not! In Matthew 25:40 Jesus said whatsoever you do to the least of my brethren that you do unto me. If you are reading this book, Nathan and Rubecca, Leah’s parents, urge you to use whatever influence you have, even if it is your social media profiles, to speak for Leah and to speak for religious freedom and peaceful coexistence. Leah’s story has not yet ended. We, people of conscience all over the world, are the ones who get to decide how this story ends. If we let this issue die a natural death, chances are that Boko Haram would do the same to Leah (only that her’s would be unnatural). But if we sustain the pressure on the Nigerian government and the international community, we will end up increasing the likelihood of Leah’s release.

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Please join me on this quest. The quest to secure the release, alive, of Leah Sharibu, the Girl That Boko Haram Left Behind. Reno Omokri July, 2018

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Chapter One

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hen Malala Yousafzai was shot by the Taliban on Tuesday, October 9, 2012, the action rightly sparked a global show of support for Malala and the cause for which she stood for; girl child education. Malala was almost killed by the Taliban for promoting girl child education in Pakistan and something much worse is happening 4,000 miles away in Nigeria. A group of radical Islamic terrorists, once known as Jamā'at Ahl as-Sunnah lid-Da'wah wa'l-Jihād, now a part of the Islamic State in West Africa, and better known as Boko Haram (Western education is sin) is on a savage mission to end all forms of organized Western education in Nigeria specifically and in West Africa generally. In keeping with their philosophy that Western education is sinful and the cause of most of society’s ills, this group of misguided radicals have either burnt or otherwise destroyed 1500 schools and twice that number of churches in Nigeria’s Northeast region, which when isolated from Nigeria as a whole, is the poorest place on planet earth bar none. And their hatred for Western education, coupled with their disdain for Christianity, led this group of medieval-minded religionists to the sleepy town of Dapchi in Nigeria’s Yobe State where they abducted 110 girls from Government Girls Science and Technical College, Dapchi, on Monday, February 19, 2018. Leah Sharibu, a shy and studious fourteen-year-old was one of the girls taken. There were many others. 109 others in fact. But Leah Sharibu stands out for two reasons. Unlike most of the other girls in the school on that day, she was a Christian. This led to the second distinction. When on March 21, 2018, Boko Haram released 104 of her classmates (the rest died either during the abduction or while in captivity), Leah was not released. After the news of the release of the abducted Dapchi girls was flashed on the Nigerian radio airwaves, an anxious nation was thrown into further worries when the newscaster said the following words "one of the abducted Dapchi girls was not released for refusing to convert to Islam." And just like that, another Malala was born, but unlike the first Malala, the world did not stand still for Leah. There were no international press

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freedom. The world seemed determined to forget about Leah and just move on to the next news item. Even in her native Nigeria, there really was not a sustained clamour for her release beyond a feeble statement by the Christian Association of Nigeria, the umbrella body of Christians in Nigeria. Why was the world taken in by Malala’s story of Muslim on Muslim violence, but not by Leah’s travails consisting of radical Muslim terror on a Christian child? That was what I sought to find out in conjunction with my friend Joe Trippi. There were too many unanswered questions in the whole ongoing saga. Why, for instance did the soldiers guarding Dapchi suddenly leave their stations a few hours to the abduction? Why did they deny their withdrawal until evidence was presented to contradict their denials? Why also did the Nigerian Army fail to inform the Nigerian Police in advance of their unusually abrupt withdrawal, as is the standard operating procedure in Nigeria’s terror war? There were still more interesting queries that needed answering. Leah had escaped from her abductors along with two other girls, Maryam and Amira. Yet, despite their bravery in outwitting their abductors, the girls were handed right back to them by a nomadic Muslim family of herdsmen to whom they had turned to help three days after fleeing Boko Haram’s hideout. This has become a familiar tale in Nigeria as something similar happened to some of the Chibok Girls earlier abducted by Boko Haram. I sought to know the answers to these and other questions and my quest proved almost impossible as I had been exiled from Nigeria by her current President, Muhammadu Buhari, himself a Muslim extremist who has once publicly called on Muslims to only vote for Muslim candidates and had boasted during the height of Nigeria’s sharia crisis which resulted in thousands of death that “l will continue to show openly and inside me the total commitment to the Sharia movement that is sweeping all over Nigeria” (a statement that puts him and Boko Haram on the same path). But Joe and I were determined to get to the bottom of Leah’s story and bring it to the world and I was not about to allow a tyrant to dissuade me. Not by a long shot! On Sunday July 8, 2018 when 12 Thai teenage football players and their

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young coach who had been trapped in a cave for 14 days were rescued, the Nigeria’s President Buhari released a statement expressing pleasure at the news. He said “'although Thailand is located thousands of miles away from us, we in Nigeria share the pains and difficulties of these trapped teenagers who face imminent danger to their lives. The way the international community responded with empathy and enthusiasm, is evidence that our common humanity is greater than our differences. When we perceive the victims as our own children, we are bound to identify with the trapped kids and be moved to action.” But where was President Buhari’s “empathy and enthusiasm” when it came to rescuing his own citizen. Where is the “common humanity” he talked about? It beats my imagination that President Buhari hailed Thailand for the rescue of the 13 youths trapped in a cave and saying it inspired him. If it inspired him, how come he has not spoken of Leah Sharibu who is trapped with Boko Haram? Let his inspiration be demonstrated by Leah’s rescue! Leah Sharibu will not be forgotten as long as I am alive. What she is going through may be similar to what Malala Yousafzai went through, but when you look deeper into it, her ordeal is even worse. Malala was attacked because her advocacy for education. Leah is in captivity because of her loyalty to God through Jesus. The world needs more people like Leah, a conscience driven individual who has the courage of her convictions. Some people have asked me why I have chosen to take up this campaign for Leah instead of leaving it in the hands of the Nigerian government. To those people, I respond by quoting a paragraph from a statement the Christian Association of Nigeria released on June 22, 2018: “Never in the history of Nigeria has a Presidential spokesperson Insulted an entire religion as has happened today when a spokeswoman of the President called the Christian Association of Nigeria a “CAN of Worms”, simply because we are insisting that the government must help rescue Leah Sharibu and stop the killings of Christians by Islamic radicals.”How can I or indeed anyone in their right mind expect a government, like the one described above, to actually care enough about Leah to do something without it being pressured into action? The purpose of this book there is to apply that pressure.

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On Sunday July 8, 2018 when 12 Thai teenage football players and their young coach who had been trapped in a cave for 14 days were rescued, the Nigeria’s President Buhari released a statement expressing pleasure at the news. He said “'although Thailand is located thousands of miles away from us, we in Nigeria share the pains and difficulties of these trapped teenagers who face imminent danger to their lives. The way the international community responded with empathy and enthusiasm, is evidence that our common humanity is greater than our differences. When we perceive the victims as our own children, we are bound to identify with the trapped kids and be moved to action.” But where was President Buhari’s “empathy and enthusiasm” when it came to rescuing his own citizen. Where is the “common humanity” he talked about? It beats my imagination that President Buhari hailed Thailand for the rescue of the 13 youths trapped in a cave and saying it inspired him. If it inspired him, how come he has not spoken of Leah Sharibu who is trapped with Boko Haram? Let his inspiration be demonstrated by Leah’s rescue!

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Chapter Two

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e spoke to Nathan Sharibu on Tuesday, June 19, 2018, exactly four months after his daughter, Leah, was abducted along with 109 other girls from her school in Dapchi, Yobe state. Nathaniel Sharibu, a policeman with the rank of an Inspector has been serving in the Nigerian Police in Adamawa Command of the Force. Adamawa is one of the most dangerous places on planet earth, second in Nigeria only to Borno state. He is a member of the Nigerian Police Force’s Special Protection Unit (SPU), a deadly commando-like arm of the Police. Special Protection Unit has a reputation for protecting individuals and communities from the most dangerous threat to internal national security and is at the forefront of Nigeria’s war on terror. Nathan was in Yola on November 21, 2017, when Boko Haram suicide bombers perpetrated one of the deadliest bombings in Nigeria’s history, killing more than 50 people at a mosque in Mubi (many say this number is highly conservative). When I spoke to the head of the Adamawa Police Command, he described Mr. Sharibu as a brave and diligent policeman who was an asset to the force and had been instrumental in saving lives. You can then imagine how Nathan felt that while he was performing his duty by protecting individuals and communities in the Yola metropolitan area, somebody somewhere deliberately gave an order to the commander of the platoon guarding Dapchi to withdraw from the town just hours before the terrorists struck. Questions therefore arise as to why the military denied that a withdrawal took place until indisputable evidence to the contrary was unearthed? Why did they change their story and claim to have handed over a secure Dapchi to the police who denied the claim by the military? Nathan wants these questions answered because he has played and continues to play his part in protecting innocent citizens and he expects that while he protects others, his own family should not have been left vulnerable to the very terrorists he is facing 300 miles away in Yola. I interviewed a prominent Movie Director in America, who has recently

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done some work in Nigeria and this person revealed to me that the dominant thinking in intelligence circles is that the Dapchi Girl’s abduction was a false flag intelligence operation to justify the request by the Muhammadu Buhari led Nigerian administration to borrow a billion dollars to be spent on national security. Such funds are usually un-budgeted and spent without any accounting as discretionary spending. Sometime in January 2018, Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari sought to borrow a billion dollars to fight Boko Haram. His request led to an immediate and spontaneous nationwide uproar because a month before he had declared victory against Boko Haram in the anti-terror war. Many Nigerians felt the request was meant to source funds for the unpopular President’s re-election, especially as the funds would not be accounted for. With elections due within a year in Nigeria’s pricey democracy, many suspected the President’s motive. On February 2, 2018, there was an uproar in Nigeria’s parliament when members of the Federal House of Representatives almost took to fisticuffs as dissension broke out over the President’s request. And then two weeks later, on February 19, 2018, the Dapchi Girls abduction took place, giving President Muhammadu Buhari the perfect excuse to appropriate $1 billion from a special savings account known as the Excess Crude Account without first getting approval from Nigeria’s Parliament as should have been the case. I interviewed a serving Nigerian Senator and chairman of an influential Senate committee and asked him why the Senate did not push back on Buhari for making the illegal withdrawal. His response to me was that the Senate had to take into account the mood of the nation which had suddenly changed after the abduction on February 19, 2019. On May 27, 2018, Transparency International, alerted the international community to the sudden 600% increase in unbudgeted Security Vote spending by the Buhari government as Nigeria’s 2019 elections approached. According to Transparency International “With the approach of the 2019 election, this abrupt increase should ring alarm bells“. In a report titled Camouflaged Cash: How 'Security Votes' Fuel Corruption in Nigeria,

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Transparency International revealed that the Buhari government is handing out “$670 million extra” budgetary Security Votes as “cash payments to designated federal government officials for discretionary spending’. When you connect the dots, it begins to bring clarity to the whole Chibok affair. The Nigerian Army denied withdrawing its men from Dapchi, but drew back from its denial and later claimed that it withdrew because there was no threat from Boko Haram against Dapchi and its environs. However, in a top-secret intelligence memo from the Defence Intelligence Agency to the Defence Headquarters on February 18, 2018 (a day before the abduction) the DIA warned the military of plans by Boko Haram to carry out terror activities in and around the area Damaturu, which comprises of Dapchi metropolis (see appendix i) With this information at hand, it is established that the military knew that Boko Haram was on its way to Dapchi. The fact that an order to withdraw was given is irrefutable proof that somebody wanted the Dapchi Girls abduction to happen. In fact, following the statement by the Nigerian Army to the effect that it had handed over the security of Dapchi to the Nigerian Police Force, the head of the Yobe state command of the police, Abdumaliki Sunmonu, released a statement which read as follows: "The attention of the Yobe State Police Command has been drawn to the publication on the issue of the Dapchi attack that the Police was informed hours before the attack on Dapchi town on 19/02/2018. The assertion is nothing but a mere speculation on its time frame as it is completely not correct. Furthermore, the insinuation that the Police ran away is not true as the only near fatal casualty was a Policeman wounded and now recuperating in the hospital. The Yobe State Police Command will continue to cooperate with other security agencies in ensuring safety and protection of lives and property of people of Yobe State". Since the Muhammadu Buhari administration rose to power on May 29, 2015, there has been evidence of at least some form of collusion between

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the government and Boko Haram. For instance, on January 15, 2018, the Buhari administration announced that it was releasing 244 allegedly ‘repentant’ Boko Haram members back to society. Exactly what makes a terrorist ‘repentant’? The government did not say. However, what is known is that one of the released Boko Haram members, Shuaibu Moni, returned to Sambisa Forest (the capital of Boko Haram’s Islamic caliphate) with many of his boys and released a video threatening the Nigerian state. And then on the four-month anniversary of the abduction of the Dapchi Girls (April 19, 2018, the Christian Association of Nigeria revealed that it had come across reliable information that the Buhari led government had issued directives to the police to recruit so-called ‘repentant’ Boko Haram members into the Nigerian Police. When you juxtapose this revelation with the fact that Boko Haram‘s stated aim is for Islamic sharia law to be applied throughout Nigeria and that President Buhari has long held such views which he publicly stated in 2002, there is a very strong circumstantial case for collusion. When the Dapchi Girls were released by Boko Haram on March 21, 2018, the Buhari government told the nation that the girls were released due to ‘back channels’ the administration had with Boko Haram. Buhari’s minister of defense, Mansur Dan Ali said: “All the security forces were asked to do everything to ensure the safe return of the Dapchi girls. The released Girls are in Dapchi and being documented; Situation is developing; release is outcome of “backchannel” negotiations; no ransoms were paid'. The talk about back channels and front channels reminded me of the fact that on November 1, 2012, Boko Haram named Muhammadu Buhari as their representative to head a team that would negotiate with the then President Goodluck Jonathan led Nigerian administration on ceasefire terms. At that time, many people, myself included, dismissed the move. But in the light of this 'back channel' talk of today, alarm bells are now ringing in my head!

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Muhammadu Buhari, who later became Nigeria’s President and is the incumbent as I write, was named by Boko Haram to Head a committee comprising Dr. Shettima Ali Monguno, Bukar Abba Ibrahim (a former Yobe State governor) Ambassador Gaji Galtimari, Hajia Aisha Wakil and her husband, Alkali Wakil. Coincidentally, the Muhammadu Buhari administration has worked with all of these people (with perhaps the exception of Bukar Abba Ibrahim and Shettima Ali Monguno, whom himself became a victim of Boko Haram and has now passed away after living an honorable life). What is happening here? One thing I know is that Boko Haram and President Buhari have at least one thing in common-a total commitment to Sharia. Consider the following comments made by President Buhari long before he went into politics: “I can die for the cause of Islam if necessary. We are prepared to fight another civil war. We cannot be blackmailed into killing Sharia.” – Muhammadu Buhari (Freedom House, 2000 and culled from Akin Osuntokun) “Muslims should only vote those who will defend their faith. We are more than the Christians if you add our Muslim brothers in the West.”- Buhari (Liberty Radio Kaduna, 2003 and culled from Akin Osuntokun) At this juncture, I am reminded of a cryptic comment made by former President Jonathan on January 8, 2012, when he admitted that Boko Haram had infiltrated the Nigerian government and had sympathizers even in the military. At that time, the then President had said: “Boko Haram backers and sympathizers are in the executive arm of the government; some of them are in the legislative arm of the government. Some are also in the armed forces, the police and other security agencies.” “Some continue to dip their hands and eat with you and you won’t even

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know the person who will point a gun at you or plant a bomb behind your house.” Was President Goodluck Jonathan right? Are we beginning to see the gloves come off ? It is very strange for me as a concerned Nigerian to see a collaboration between the government and terrorists. I find it strange to believe that Boko Haram just released the Dapchi Girls without a ransom being paid and without their captured commanders being released. If that is the case, what was the point of taking the girls in the first place? And the mention of 'back channels' what does it mean? Does Boko Haram have representatives in government or does the government have representatives in Boko Haram? Do they have an Embassy for their Caliphate operating somewhere in the Nigerian nation-state? The whole issue is suspicious. It raises more questions than it answers. Yes, I am glad that the girls were released but this is extraordinarily fishy to say the least. Is it that ‘front channel’ abducted Dapchi Girls and 'back channel' released them? Is this a recycling game? What is happening here? The more you look, the less you see! There is something not quite right! In a video of the release, Boko Haram fighters can be seen driving into Dapchi town to the joyous greetings of residents of the town. They were cheered as though they were freedom fighters. They dropped off the girls and even had time for a tête-à-tête with the parents of the girls and the elders of the town. Really? Were these not the same people who stoned Mr. Ibrahim Geidam, the Yobe State Governor a month ago. How come they can be seen waving to Boko Haram fighters and the fighters are seen waving back? Even after they delivered the girls back safely, neither the army nor its sister security agencies were on hand to arrest them? Why? That would have been the commonsensical thing to do. After all, they have only one girl left. A report by the Guardian of UK on Wednesday 21, 2018 is even more damning. The report quotes a Dapchi Girl thus: “It took us three days to get back to Dapchi,” said Fatima (a #DapchiGirl). “We were divided into three groups and flown in planes, and taken over

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rivers in boats.” “Neither the military nor the police attempted to apprehend the militants, who even stopped to change a tyre before leaving Dapchi, according to Mataba.” There is some collusion somewhere because I cannot believe Boko Haram have aircraft that can take off and land without collusion. What the video of the release shows is that terror can only thrive where there is local support. It is hard to see how you can hate Boko Haram and still wave to them and cheer them on. All caught on video. One could have been forgiven if he mistook the fawning affection shown by the people of Dapchi for Boko Haram as a visit by Omotola Jalade-Ekehinde (Nigeria’s biggest movie star) to Dapchi. No wonder Mark Twain said, "Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; Truth isn’t". Mr. Twain could as well have been writing about the Dapchi saga! We have been told that Boko Haram is defeated and only a few stragglers remain, and they are desperately hungry and lacking even the most subsistent necessities. Yet, they showed up in Dapchi town with almost 100 well-fed girls looking as if they just returned from a holiday to Dubai. Khadija Grema, one of the abducted Dapchi Girls returned by Boko Haram spoke to Channels Television about the circumstances of their abduction. Read her account of the abduction: “That fateful day we were ready for dinner when we heard shootings then one of our teacher was calling and directing us to go out through the gate. When we run into the insurgents at the gate, they gathered all of us in the name of rescue when suddenly they asked Babangida the driver to bring the truck which they packed us in.” This is an eye witness testimony. They were eating. They heard shooting. They panicked. They ran. Boko Haram came and got them. Does this not appear to be the act of people that knew for a fact that the security in the town and school had been dispensed with?

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And we still do not know the answers to the questions posed by the All Progressive Congress Governor of Yobe State, which was-who gave the order for the soldiers guarding Dapchi to leave just prior to the abduction? The whole thing is looking like a badly scripted Nollywood movie where a man without a shirt is hit with a car in one scene and in the next scene he is being taken to hospital with a shirt and tie! No continuity between scenes. The whole thing looks like a tale of a rabbit that gave birth to two bunnies and three out of the two died, while the remaining four were sold! What is going on? President Buhari who ought to have been in Kigali on March 21 to sign an African Free Trade Agreement ended up not going even though the Presidency had announced that an advanced party had gone on before him. His refusal to show up in Kigali gave smaller African countries the opportunity they needed to issue a rebuke to Nigeria. Why did the President not travel? Was it because of the publicly stated reason (he needed more time to consult with those opposed to the agreement) or because the front channel was busy preparing for what the back channel was about to do? It almost looks to me like the Dapchi Girls and their parents were pawns in a game contrived to affect the 2019 elections. The saddest part of the saga are the five girls that died in captivity. At least, Leah Sharibu is alive and where there is life, there is hope. But five girls are dead. And according to press reports, they died of a heart attack. A heart attack? Teenagers dying of a heart attack? Somehow this does not wash. Maybe someday, perhaps through the front channels of another regime, we will eventually get to know what really happened at Dapchi and Chibok. But for now, let us pretend to believe this ‘back channel’ fairy tale. That there was a conspiracy is clear. Very clear. Nathan suspects this and he and his family are extremely demoralized that his efforts to secure the lives and property of others has been so shabbily rewarded by the Nigerian state. After we spoke to Nathan, I was so moved about Leah’s plight that I posted

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the following update to my Facebook profile: Exactly 4 months ago today, Leah Sharibu was abducted by Boko Haram, who continue to hold her captive because she refused to abandon her faith in Jesus. I wish feminists, like Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, could use their celebrity to focus the world’s attention on Leah. Leah may not be Hillary or chivalry, but she is worthy of heraldry. If you have read this, please can you stop what you are doing and just comment a prayer for the safe return of Leah?

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Chapter Three

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ronically, Nathan Sharibu has the Nigerian government to thank for the gift of Leah. You see, Leah was born on May 15, 2003, to Nathan and his wife, Rubecca who met each other at Dapchi sometime in the year 2001 when Nathan was posted by the police to Dapchi and Rubecca was working as a primary school Teacher in Dapchi. Rubecca is originally from Biu, a town in Borno state, a state bordering Yobe, where Dapchi is situated in. She is widely known to be passionate about education and has been teaching for 21 years, which makes her a direct target of Boko Haram, whose name means Western education is sin. Did Boko Haram know about Rubecca’s background? Did they target her daughter because of it? Leah shares her mother’s passion for education and she was a very studious pupil who would often read by the light of a hurricane lantern when the public power supply was not available (as is frequently the case in Nigeria). She was also known for encouraging local girls in Dapchi to be serious about their studies. In her Junior Secondary Certificate Examinations, Leah had nine As out of fourteen subjects she took (see appendix ii). She is a rising star in a community where education was not very well sought after, and she tried to change the state of things. The abduction has been particularly hard on Leah’s brother, Donald. He has been traumatized by her kidnap and continued abduction. He is thirteen years old and misses Leah but tries to stay strong for his mother’s sake. The Sharibu’s live in a part of Dapchi that is overwhelmingly Muslim and their Muslim neighbours are nothing like the Muslim radicals who abducted their daughter. The community has embraced the Sharibu’s and many of their Muslim neighbours have joined them in praying for Leah’s safe return. One of them in particular is an Islamic cleric with the title Imam. His daughter was killed during the abduction of the 110 Dapchi girls by Boko Haram and he was heartbroken for a while, but his spirit picked up after he learned of Leah’s act of faith in refusing to be released at the cost of

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abandoning her faith. The Imam (name withheld) is considering conversion to Christianity because of Leah’s strong faith. He told me that he believes that “the God of Leah is the true God”. This is the best thing to have come out of this unfolding saga, the fact that Leah continues to inspire faith in people near and far. It is not an isolated incidence, but Northern Nigeria is a place where Muslims can pay a heavy price for converting and I do not want to put anyone at risk. Rubecca told me she thinks of Leah every day and even had a vivid dream about Leah in which Leah was shown to be alive. Despite calls on her to leave Dapchi with the rest of her family, she insists she will remain in Dapchi until her daughter is released by Boko Haram. When asked to describe Leah, Rubecca simply sighed and said: “Leah is a wonderful child, hardworking and obedient to us her parents”. When asked what she wants most in this world, she responded thus-to sleep and wake up to see that Leah is back home. When we got to Dapchi on June 20, 2018, Reverend Daniel Auta was presiding over the evening service at the ECWA church. My friend joined him in church and after the service he sat down to talk to us, telling us that Leah is a member of the church choir, the youth fellowship and a regular attendee of the church’s Sunday School program. Reverend Auta asked us to tell the world to pray for the safe return of Leah. I have gone to great lengths to describe the real Leah from the perspective of those who knew her best in order to show that, in my opinion, the most principled person in Nigeria today is a fifteen-year-old girl named Leah Sharibu. In a nation where politicians change parties more than prostitutes change partners, it is refreshing to find a girl who refused to abandon her faith in God through Christ Jesus, on pain of death.

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Chapter Four

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n my investigation into the Dapchi Girls abduction, I arranged an overnight visit to hear from the horse’s mouth what transpired during the abduction. Much of the stories are already public knowledge, but there is one story that has not been fully brought into the public light and that is that Boko Haram flew the abducted Dapchi Girls in planes. Yes, planes. From where did Boko Haram get planes? How do they land these planes? On Monday, October 18, 2010, former President Goodluck Jonathan commissioned the Total Radar Coverage Nigerian Airspace (TRACON). By this project, Nigeria is fully covered by radar. Thus, how is it possible for a rabble group of terrorists like Boko Haram to own or operate planes without the knowledge of the Nigerian government? Every plane or flying object comes up in the radar. How did the Nigerian authorities miss this? Or did they really miss it? The girls told us that they were flown in airplanes and thereafter taken by boats over a river. When I asked a renowned journalist, Ahmed Salkida to verify this information, he said that the river the girls referred to was actually Lake Chad. Dapchi is in Yobe State and is close to the town of Gashu’a from where you can access the Yobe River (also known as the Komadougou Yobe). So it is most likely that the terrorists abducted the girls from Dapchi and drove them to Gashu’a and from there boarded a boat and went down river to their one of their bases in the Lake Chad region. But how could they have done all this undetected? I have been to Gashu’a. I spent four days there. I know the terrain. Gashu’a and Nauru are joint towns and Nguru is home to the 241 RECCE (reconnaissance) Battalion of the Nigerian Army. The 241 Recce battalion is a formation of the Nigerian Army that I am quite familiar with. It is pack full of intelligence officers and is well known for gathering intelligence on enemy movements and anticipating threats. Nauru is 94 miles from Dapchi and 40 miles from the Yobe River in Gashu’a. How could Boko Haram have operated in the vicinity of the elite

20

Nigerian Army reconnaissance unit without them having a clue? It all sounds surreal because it is a fantastic tale. The whole saga becomes even more incredulous when you factor in the testimony of Amnesty International whose investigative report on the Dapchi Girls abduction published on March 20, 2018 alleges that “Between 2pm and 6.30pm on 19 February, security forces received at least five calls warning them that the armed group was on the way to Dapchi.” I have verified that this information is at least partially correct. There were verifiable alerts raised by phone on that day although I am not able to confirm five as a total number. According to Amnesty International, “the first call was made to the army command in Geidam, 54km from Dapchi, informing them that Boko Haram fighters had been seen at Futchimiram heading to Gumsa, a village about 30km from Dapchi. However, the evidence documented by Amnesty International shows that the military did nothing to engage with Boko Haram and ensure the protection of civilians.” Why did the Nigerian Army not act on this information, particularly when they had and still have a battalion stationed at Nguru, which is slightly over an hour’s drive from Dapchi? What is going on here? In my investigation, it was established that the Nigerian Army was informed by residents of a small town called Gumsa, that Boko Haram terrorists were on their way to Dapchi. This information was given at least ninety minutes before the terrorists got to Dapchi. How could 50-60 men, drive for two hours within Yobe State, into Dapchi town in seven Toyota Landcruiser SUVs, one Hilux truck and a canter truck, without the security officials being unaware and doing nothing, especially as there had been a similar abduction in Chibok 4 years before in 2014? When the Marvel movie, Black Panther, was rehearsed and portrayed Nigeria in the negative light it did (it featured Boko Haram ferrying abducted girls to an unknown location), some prominent Nigerians, including senior government officials complained about the depiction. But what do they expect? What was portrayed in the movie is not even as bad as the true-life story I have just chronicled above.

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Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari ordered an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the abduction and the intelligence failure which led to the abduction, but up until this moment, nothing has come out from that investigation. And if Buhari’s history is anything to go by, nothing ever will.

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Chapter Five

A

fter it became known that I had organized a visit to Dapchi to interview Leah’s family and friends, the Buhari administration unleashed its agents to undermine me. Overnight, coordinated attacks against my person and my motives for visiting the Sharibu family sprang up on social media. Why is the Nigerian government led by President Muhammadu Buhari worried about the visit? What were they afraid I would find? The residents of Dapchi revealed that when Boko Haram brought back the 104 Dapchi Girls they released on March 21, 2018, they met no resistance from Nigeria’s military or police. None at all. They drove freely into the town and interacted with the townspeople without any fears on their part. At least three residents of Dapchi testified that the Boko Haram members who returned the girls had a flat tyre in Dapchi and even sought for help from locals in fixing their flat. Believe it or not, the terrorists who abducted the girls were so relaxed in Dapchi that they took selfies (yes, selfies) with the locals. They also shook hands with the natives and gave them a pep talk. I was shown a video taken by residents which showed them adoring the terrorists. Of course, Dapchi is overwhelmingly Muslim and on that basis, there was some rapport with the Boko Haram members, however, it was still a remarkable thing to watch as the townspeople fawned over a group of men who, like the Pied Piper of Hamelin, had taken their children away. What came to my mind was that some sort of Stockholm syndrome was at play here. What is certain is that the Muhammadu Buhari administration allowed the terrorists to enter and leave Dapchi undeterred and unchallenged because they had an arrangement. This is a fruit of the so-called ‘back channel’ mentioned by Muhammadu Buhari’s minister of defence. Many people find the fact that a government could be so intricately involved in the abduction of its own people, particularly vulnerable young girls, shocking. Such people may need to familiarize themselves with the

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these activities are taking place. This is not the first abduction Muhammadu Buhari has been involved with. Muhammadu Buhari was once a brutal Military Dictator who seized power by toppling the democratically elected government of President Shehu Shagari on December 31, 1983. After the Shagari government fell, one man, Umaru Dikko, President Shagari’s brother in law and minister of transport, who was considered by many to be the power behind the throne, escaped to London. From his base in London, he continued to oppose the new military dictatorship headed by then Major General Muhammadu Buhari, who considered Mr. Dikko a threat to his hold on power because of the facts he was revealing to the Nigerian public about their new ruler. The Muhammadu Buhari administration sent a military intelligence team to London headed by one Mohammed Yusufu, then a major in the Nigerian Army. Major Yusufu’s led a team of intelligence officers who passed themselves off as refugees from Nigeria. They rented a flat at a London address on Cromwell Road. They located Mr. Dikko while he was shopping in the Bayswater area of London and tailed him to his address at Porchester Terrace and thereafter put the house on close monitoring. With funds from Nigeria, Major Yusufu’s team flew in an anesthetist to London and on July 4, 1984, while Americans around the world were celebrating liberty, the Buhari government gave the order to deprive Umaru Dikko of his liberty. On that day, Mr. Dikko was abducted while taking a walk and thrown into a waiting van where he was put under with the aid of chloroform and driven to Stansted Airport where a Nigeria Airways Boeing 707 was waiting to complete this 007 operation by ferrying Dikko to Lagos, then Nigeria’s capital. But as it turned out, one Elizabeth Hayes, who worked as a private secretary to Mr. Dikko, observes the abduction through a window and phoned Scotland Yard to report the incidence. The British authorities

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immediately issued an alert to all border authorities. At Stansted, a crate was about to be loaded into the Nigeria Airways plane and would have indeed gotten on board, but due to the alert, British customs officials insisted on searching all cargo going on board. Their search uncovered an unconscious Umaru Dikko and the doctor who had placed him under and was to monitor his health until he could safely be handed over to Buhari’s government in Lagos. Major Yusufu was arrested, tried and convicted in Britain and went on to serve a jail term at a British prison. Is it a stretch to believe that a man who could mastermind such an audacious abduction 34 years ago would not do something similar in 2018? Old habits die hard.

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Chapter Six

A

hmed Salkida may perhaps be the person with the closest connection to Boko Haram’s leadership in the world. A wellknown journalist, he has proved his bona fides by getting reliable information about the terror group, including information that the Nigerian government did not want to come out. He has been living in the United Arab Emirates for four years due to threats to his life until 2017 when he was declared wanted by the Muhammadu Buhari administration upon which he voluntarily returned to Nigeria where he was interrogated by the Nigerian secret police (The Department of State Security) and then released. He has lived in Nigeria ever since, although he informed me of his desire to leave the country due to the Gestapo-like behaviour of the Buhari regime. It was important to me to interview Mr. Salkida for this book and I was able to track him down after a long search. Sadly, he is of the opinion that Leah Sharibu might have already been killed by Boko Haram although he says he has no proof of that. When I asked him why it has proven hard for the Nigerian government to secure her release, given the ‘back channel’ it had boasted of having with Boko Haram’s leadership, Mr. Salkida’s response was that there was an unwillingness on the part of the Buhari administration to secure her release from Boko Haram. In fact, the government had abandoned her. “Nothing has ever seemed tricky to me like the case of Leah”, he said to me. “I get any kinds of updates, as my records have shown, but when it is the case of Leah they (Boko Haram’s leadership) try to avoid my queries.” He then gave me the information I did not want to hear by saying “I will be surprised if she is still alive”. I asked him why he held such a view and he responded by saying “the only reason the Chibok Girls (the first set of school-girls abducted by Boko Haram in 2014) were important was because of the videos I was releasing.” He is of the view that Leah was not made an international cause célèbre by

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those who may have been interested in her safety and for that reason she had no value to Boko Haram who would not want to waste (in their opinion) valuable resources in keeping her alive and as she refused conversion to Islam, she would not be given away to fighters as a wife, meaning that she would not get the protection of a mujahid (as a jihadi fighter is known). Ahmed Salkida then informed me that huge sums of money had been paid by the Buhari administration to Boko Haram, collaborating other reports I had received on the issue of money changing hands. Mr. Salkida revealed that he was afraid for his safety in Nigeria as the current administration is not comfortable with the revelations he has made to the world on the issue of Boko Haram and their dealings, especially with the current Nigerian government led by President Muhammadu Buhari. As you can imagine, I was crestfallen after the infirmary I got from Mr. Salkida. If there was any hope to be had for Leah, it was that those who care about her should make her valuable to Boko Haram and the Nigerian government by turning her into an international cause célèbre which is the main motivation for this book. A lot still remains to be unveiled about this saga. What is the extent of the collusion between the current Nigerian government of President Muhammadu Buhari and Boko Haram? Who gave the fateful order to the military to withdraw from their stations in Dapchi hours before the girls were abducted? Why was Boko Haram allowed to stroll in and out of Dapchi on March 21, 2018, without any attempt by the Nigerian authorities to stop them? How is Boko Haram able to fly its planes and land them in Nigeria’s territorial airspace without the government knowing and stopping them? These and other questions remain unanswered and it is my hope that one day they will be answered, perhaps when a new administration comes in, or when Mr. Salkida is able to leave Nigeria for a safe haven. But one thing is sure, this is not the end of the saga.

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Chapter Seven

T

he world watched at first with horror and then with growing hope as twelve Thai teenage players and their coach were trapped in the Tham Luang Nang Non cave (also known as the Great Cave of the Sleeping Lady). From June 23, 2018, the spotlight of the world was beamed on Thailand. The mainstream media was awash with the constant news cycle of what could become a saga. The boys and their coach had ventured into the cave as part of a team building exercise, however, shortly after their entry into the natural labyrinth, there was a heavy downpour which blocked the entrance to the cave and forced the boys deeper and deeper into its recesses. There was panic in Thailand because no contact was made with the boys and their coach for a whole week. But with the help of seven British divers, contact was made with the boys and their coach on July 2, 2018 and thus began an international effort to save them. Volunteers from 21 nations including The United State of America, The United Kingdom and China were on hand to help in the international effort to save the youths. Elon Musk, the billionaire entrepreneur and philanthropist built a purpose built submarine and personally flew to Thailand to deliver it to the Thai government. Even the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) was involved and wrote a letter to the Thai authorities, inviting the boys to watch the final of the 2018 World Cup which was ongoing in Russia. If it took an international effort to save these boys, if the world media was so captivated by their stories, if billionaires like Elon Musk were so eager to help rescue them, why is there no such effort for Leah Sharibu? Where is the world’s outrage? Where is the international condemnation? Where are the global media? Leah is every bit in need of the world’s help as

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The Thai boys were. Why isn’t the world standing up for her? On May 7, 2014, Michelle Obama tweeted a picture of the #BringBackOurGirls hashtag. That single act immediately brought international attention to the Chibok Girls. Why is no one doing the same for Leah? Michelle Obama said “In these girls, Barack and I see our own daughters”, which was a commendable thing to say. Can the world’s leaders not see in Leah their ‘own daughters’? Why did the world stand up to be counted for Malala Yousafzai and the Thai cave boys but not for Leah? It is not too late for the world to care about Leah’s fate. Back to the Thai cave rescue, between July 8-10 2018, all of the boys and their coaches were rescued alive to the glory of God. However, one thing struck me. I was struck by the message of goodwill Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari gave to the Thai government when the rescue operations began to show some success. On July 8, 2018, Mr. Buhari released a statement saying he was inspired by the Thai rescue efforts. Going further he said: "When we perceive the victims as our own children, we are bound to identify with the trapped kids and be moved to action. The way the international community responded with empathy and enthusiasm, is evidence that our common humanity is greater than our differences. In a globalised world, the bond of our common humanity is getting stronger day by day. Although Thailand is located thousands of miles away from us, we in Nigeria share the pains and difficulties of these trapped teenagers who face imminent danger to their lives.” How Mr. Buhari can empathise with Thailand, a country that is 6000 miles from Nigeria, while repeatedly ignoring Leah Sharibu, a girl that had been

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in captivity eight times as long as the Thai boys, beats me! In his preparations for his reelection in 2019, Mr. Buhari has all but forgotten about Leah, a promising Christian child from a poor home who is in captivity just because she refused to deny her faith. In all my years on earth, very few things have been as inspiring as the case of Leah Sharibu, and I nonplussed by the Nigerian President’s failure to call attention to this story of real and rare Nigerian heroism. Leah Sharibu should not be forgotten. Though she is a child at just 15, Mr. Buhari did not mention her on Children’s Day 2018 when he released a statement, neither did he do so on May 29, 2018 which was a major holiday in Nigeria (Democracy Day). Even if Mr. Buhari has forgotten her, the world should not forget. Perhaps Mr. Buhari will only care about her if, like the Thai cave boys, she becomes an international cause célèbre. But why does that have to be the case? Why must Leah’s life only have value if the international media gives it value? Why can’t Leah’s life be valuable for the simple reason that all Nigerian lives are valuable?

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A Mother’s Prayer for Leah.

M

ay God protect my daughter wherever she is now. May God help her to keep her faith in God through Christ Jesus. May God set her free from her captives. May God cause these evil people to Repent. I pray that those who are praying for my daughter Leah will not stop praying until she is released and returned home to us. Rubecca Nathan Sharibu (Leah’s Mother).

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Epilogue

W

hen the Chibok Girls were kidnapped by Boko Haram in 2014, the then Nigerian opposition All Progressive Congress condemned the then Nigerian government led by President Goodluck Jonathan most stridently for not swinging to action immediately and for keeping the public uninformed about the saga. Most vociferous and cantankerous was a man eponymously named Lai Mohammed, who was then the National Publicity Secretary of the APC. It is therefore surprising that a bunch of people who were so critical of others during their time of testing, showed the same traits they criticized in others during this ongoing saga involving Leah Sharibu. For instance, two full days after Boko Haram abducted almost a hundred girls from Government Girls Science and Technical School, on Monday the 19th of February 2018, there was no word or communication from any level of the Nigerian government informing the public that such a thing had occurred or what was being done to rescue the girls. It was only on Wednesday, February 21, 2018, that, after much criticism, Nigerians heard from their leader, President Muhammadu Buhari via his Twitter timeline. But of course, all he did was give platitudes. Even sadder still is the fact that this incident happened in Dapchi, in Yobe State on Monday, February 19, 2018, and the very next day, the Nigerian President was on his merry way to another state (Adamawa) for a so-called anti-corruption summit! So many questions remain unanswered concerning this incident. After what had happened in Chibok, why were girls left unsecured at a boarding school in a state like Yobe that is vulnerable to Boko Haram? The administration said Boko Haram had been defeated, so how does a defeated foe move from one state to another state to carry out such a daring raid? Four years ago, during the administration of former Nigerian President, Goodluck Jonathan, the Nigerian Federal Government had advised the Governors of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states not to keep children in schools like Government Girls Science and Technical School, but to bus them to the state capitals where security forces were better able to protect them. It happened with the Chibok girls, it did not have to happen again!

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An Appeal for Leah

L

eah Sheribu does not come from a rich family. But she does come from a family rich in faith and God’s love. I experienced this first hand when I finished writing this book. I had told Nathan Sheribu to let me know if the family need anything and that I would financially support them. Nathan thanked me profusely and was very emotional. He told me the family had no need (although I know that they do) and that the only thing he wants me to do for him and his family is to help get Leah released. The family just wants their daughter back. They are not interested in financially benefiting from this satiation. All they want is for this girl with a strong faith in God through Christ Jesus, to come back from the Lions’ Den alive, like Daniel. So, if you have any information that could lead to rescue or release of Leah Sheribu, please let me have it at the following email address: [email protected]

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Appendix I Top-secret intelligence memo from the Defence Intelligence Agency to the Defence Headquarters on February 18, 2018.

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Appendix II Leah’s last report card. She was a brilliant student and has a promising future ahead of her, God willing.

35

The hand-written note on a Bible presented to Leah (through her mother) by retired Colonel Dangiwa Umar, a former Governor of Kaduna state in Nigeria.

36

The only time Leah’s mum, Rubecca, smiled throughout our time with her was when she was playing with a neighbour’s child who reminds her so much of Leah.

37

A picture of Leah’s secondary school, Government Girls Science and Technical College, Dapchi, from where she was abducted.

38

Another view of Government Girls Science and Technical College (GGSTC), Dapchi.

39

The dirt road taken by Boko Haram on the day they abducted Leah and her school mates

40

Leah’s mum with Reverend John Hayab, spokesman of the Christian Association of Nigeria, 19 Northern states

41

I intend to tell Leah’s story wherever I go around the world until she is freed by her abductors -Reno Omokri

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The author with Florida Governor, Rick Scott.

43

The author with José María Aznar, Former Prime Minister of Spain.

44

The author with British Prime Minister, Theresa May.

45

The author with immediate past Canadian Prime Minister, Stephen Harper.

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Index .A Ahmed Salkida 2, 20, 27 B Boko Haram 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 23, 26, 27, 32, 40, 47 C Chibok Girls 2, 6, 26, 29, 32 Council on Foreign Relations 2 D Dapchi Girls 1, 2, 10, 11, 12, 14, 15, 16, 20, 21, 23 G Goodluck Jonathan 12, 14, 20, 32, 47 L Lai Mohammed 32 Leah Sharibu 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 8, 16, 17, 19, 26, 28, 29, 32, 47 M Malala 5, 6, 7, 29, 47 Michelle Obama 29 Muhammadu Buhari 2, 6, 10, 11, 12, 13, 22, 23, 24, 26, 27, 29, 32 N Nathan Sharibu 3, 9, 16, 18, 31, 33 R Rubecca Sharibu 3, 18, 19, 31, 37 U U.S. House Subcommittee 2 US Congress 2 Y Yobe State Police Command 11

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LEAH SHARIBU: The Girl Boko Haram Left Behind

“The world must not forget Leah Sharibu. Like Malala Yousafzai, she has suffered, and is still suffering, for what she believes in. She believes in Jesus. She does not have to die for that belief ” -Onyeka Onwenu, International Music Superstar and Women’s Advocate

Reno Omokri is a Christian TV talk show host and founder of the Mind of Christ Christian Center and the Helen and Bemigho Sanctuary for Orphans. He is the author of four other books including Shunpiking: No Shortcuts to God, Why Jesus Wept, Apples of Gold: A Book of Godly Wisdom and the Number One bestselling Facts Versus Fiction the True Story of the Jonathan Years: Chibok, 2015 and the Conspiracies. He was one of three spokesmen to President Goodluck Jonathan and was formerly Vice President of Trippi and Associates, a US political consulting firm. He is a columnist with ThisDay Newspapers.