Days after the terror group, Boko Haram, released a video showing the killing of an aide worker, and threatening to harm the abducted Dapchi schoolgirl, Leah Sharibu, the Christian Association of Nigeria has demanded her immediate release.
The association also called on government to ensure the safe release of over a hundred Chibok girls still held by the terror group more than four years since their abduction in 2014.
CAN’s president, Samson Ayokunle, made the call at a programme aimed at expressing the displeasure of Nigerians over cases of indiscriminate killings across the country. The programme was organised by a group known as the Ecumenism for Development and Peace Initiative, (EDAPI).
In a statement by Mr Ayokunle’s media assistant, Bayo Oladeji, CAN said the call was necessitated by the recently reported video where Ms Sharibu’s life was threatened while Boko Haram killed another abducted official of the International Committee of the Red Cross, Saifura Khorsa.
“A very sad case is that of Leah Sharibu and the Chibok girls that are still in captivity for months and years now, either because of their faith or religious malady of some crazy Islamic fundamentalists,” CAN said. “I call on the federal government and the security agencies to put their acts together and release all the captives before it is too late. These people are too young to die. It is the constitutional responsibility of government to protect lives and property of the governed.”
The statement further called on Nigerians to join CAN in its campaign to create a culture of preventing social vices, namely: careless driving, burn out, ethnic violence, rioting, suicide bombing, human trafficking, bloodshed, drug abuse, religious violence, political thuggery, cultism, domestic violence, abortion, alcoholism, ritual killings, among others.
Ms Sharibu was abducted in February along with over a hundred other Dapchi students. Five of the students later died, while the others were later released, following an agreement with the federal government.
Ms Sharibu was however left behind, allegedly because she refused to denounce her faith.
Also the Boko Haram terror group, abducted over 200 girls from the Chibok community, in Borno State in April, 2014. Many of the girls have either escaped or were released following agreements between the group and government. Some 112 Chibok girls have, however, not been released still.