President Muhammadu Buhari’s failure to secure Leah Sharibu’s release “is another heartbreaking proof that PMB belongs to some people.”
This was according to Dr Frederick Faseun, founder of the Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC), who said this in reaction to the continued detention of Sharibu, the only Christian girl among the 115 schoolgirls recently abducted and released by Boko Haram insurgents from a Dapchi, Yobe State, technical college.
The insurgents had withheld Sharibu because she allegedly refused to denounce Christianity.
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Faseun said it was “insensitive an unpatriotic” for the Buhari government to agree to a conflict-ridden agreement when it secured the release of only Muslim Dapchi schoolgirls from the terrorists’ captivity.
The OPC founder said, “Nobody should make a martyr of that small girl. Her ordeal for being a Christian makes many Nigerians wonder if religion is why the government appears to be foot-dragging in negotiating the release of the Chibok girls, many of whom are Christians.
“The Leah episode is an international embarrassment and it is another heartbreaking proof, plus others like the unchecked killings by Fulani herdsmen, that PMB belongs to some people and not to others.”
“There is no other way for these Muslim leaders to convince the world of their disagreement with Boko Haram’s philosophy and action than to call for her (Leah’s) immediate return and their denunciation of this gross violation of Leah’s rights to life, belief, movement, conscience and association, as guaranteed by the Nigerian Constitution, the African Charter and United Nations Conventions.”
PLEA TO NEGOTIATE RELEASE OF THE CHRISTIAN GIRL WHO WAS ABDUCTED ALONGSIDE OTHERS IN DAPCHI
Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) female presidential aspirant, Princess Professor Olufunmilayo Adesanya-Davies, has appealed to the federal government to unfailingly negotiate the release of the Dapchi Christian School-girl MISS LEAH SHARIBU who was abducted by Boko Haram alongside other students in Dapchi, Yobe State, Nigeria in this Easter Season.
Boko Haram insurgents had returned 104 out of the 110 girls abducted on 19th February, 2018 and 5 of them had reportedly died while Leah Sharibu, was not released. “According to Khadija Grema, one of the freed girls, Leah was not released because she is a Christian and she refused to put on hijab or convert.”
The Bishop Professor Olufunmilayo Adesanya-Davies condemned Boko Haram’s attempt to compel and force Leah to convert to Islam. The Qur’an states that there is no compulsion in Islam (2:256). It says Allah himself could have made the whole mankind Muslims if He had wished (11:118). The Quran forbids forceful conversion or punishment of non-Muslims by Muslims and declares that each shall have the right to follow his or her religion (Lakunm diinukunm wa liya diin 109:1 – 6). They would have to learn to obey the tenants of Islam.
Infact, seventy five (75) Bible verses make references to say: “Touch not God’s anointed and do my prophets no harm.”
in both the Old and New Testaments. 1 Chronicles 16:22, Psalm 105:15, etc.
Boko Haram as an Islamic group is definitely not following the Islamic tenants of faith and should be finally curtailed in Nigeria. The leadership and members of the Boko Haram and similar Islamic terrorist groups would have to re-examine their ideological base towards world peace world-wide, she explained.
The Bishop salutes the courage and faith of Leah Sharibu who was abducted alongside other Muslim students and has refused to denounce her faith in the Lord Jesus Christ as the Messiah as a Christian. Leah as a Nigerian is at liberty to practice her Christian religion. Any attempt to forcefully convert her or anyone from their religion to another is not only inciting and indicting but inhuman.
Professor Olufunmilayo Adesanya-Davies therefore joins all well meaning Nigerians to call on the President Buhari-led-Federal Government and all its agencies to ensure the urgent release of Leah Sharibu without any further delay. We are very optimistic and waiting please.
Adesanya-Davies enjoins the Federal Government (FG) to widen their scope of dialogue with Boko Haram insurgents by incorporating Islamic doctrinal issues, de-radicalisation and ideological re-orientation of the Boko Haram in their discussions. Military defeat and giving out of money to them for negotiations alone amount only to further complicating issues as we all know.
She charges the FG to go back to the negotiation table in order to secure the release of the only Christian girl among the Dapchi girls who is being held back by the insurgents because by withholding the Christian girl, they seek to divide Nigerians once again along religious lines, which is not only detrimental to the current state of the nation but can lead to apathy.
Princess Olufunmilayo Adesanya-Davies expresses her sincere sympathy and stands in solidarity with the parents of Leah Sharibu, the Christian girl in captivity. “I salute her daring faith and courage at age fourteen (14). I salute the parents. I daily cannot recover over her plight and I remain dumbfounded”.
We would recall that “The United States government explained that animosity between Nigeria’s security agencies and their unwillingness to share intelligence were hampering effort at effectively combating the Boko Haram insurgency.” They all would have to please cooperate with the international community and stop sticking to political reasons.