•Kano still detains Du Merci 16 orphans despite Court acquittals

By A SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

A close friend and classmate of captive heroine Christian schoolgirl Leah Sharibu was kidnapped five years after the Dapchi school mass abductions.

“Ladidi” (real name withheld for security reasons) was among the 105 girls initially reported abducted on February 19, 2018, by terrorist group ISWA, our records show. However unlike Leah, Ladidi was able to escape in the process, making Leah the only Christian student captured by the terrorists.

Our investigation reveals that her father then evacuated her to north central Nigeria to continue her education in safety.

However after obtaining admission to a tertiary institution in the northeast, she relocated again to a neighboring state with less insecurity concerns.

Ironically, however Ladidi was subsequently drugged and forcefully converted to Islam, not by Boko Haram terrorists but by her Muslim schoolmates including a head of department at her school.

The fact that Leah’s best friend was herself abducted in purportedly a safer school, on the 5th anniversary of the Dapchi abductions is indicative of the continuing precarious condition for women in Nigeria.

Incidentally, at a service marking Leah’s 5th anniversary in Abuja recently, international human rights lawyer Emmanuel Ogebe said he was tipped off that the Dapchi girls would be returned and “exactly 1 month after the abduction the Muslim girls were returned but Leah was not.”

Continuing, he said: “What does that tell you?

“That this is predictable, the people who are doing this are known and every month in Northern Nigeria Christian girls are abducted; not by terrorists alone but by their own Muslim neighbors.

“And even in the same village, you can see your daughter but cannot have access to her. That happened to Habiba in Katsina in 2016 and till today she has not come back. They even brought her to NTA here in Abuja and showed her and took her back and the father could not see his daughter till today.” https://fb.watch/iQotXFHkjD/

Ladidi stated that, “First of all I'm from Dapchi Yobe state Nigeria where I was given birth, raised and did my primary school.

“Leah Sharibu was a very good friend of mine because we went to the same primary school. While we were in secondary school, Boko Haram attacked our school in Dapchi and told us that they are here to help us not knowing that they were there to kidnap us. So from there i struggled and luckily escaped but my friend Leah could not escape and they went away with her and since then I haven't set my eyes on her.

“With the help of God Almighty my dad transferred me to another school in a different state till I completed my secondary school and got admitted in a northeast institution.

“When I started schooling at the college, most of the student's there are Muslim which makes the environment unfavorable for us Christians. We are just staying not that we are enjoying because of their population and some challenges like insults and religious differences because we are not up to 30 in number. They are the majority in our hostel. Because of that, most of the Christian students don't usually stay in the hostel.

“Bearing a Hausa name and being quiet most of the time and wearing of veil when going out makes them to have their eyes on me and they're using that to convince me on a regular basis to denounce my faith. Then one of my mates drugged me with charms that made me compliant and I was taken away to the Head of Department’s house and islamized.

my mind was indoctrinated with Islamic belief and a letter sent to my parents by the Sharia commission claiming I had converted to Islam.

“My dad came with the police to rescue me. When my parents brought me home, I realize that God is faithful and loves me because if not for God I wouldn't have known where I am today.

“I really thank God for not allowing the devil to have victory over my life. God is indeed great.

“I have no plans of going back to that school again to pursue my dream of studying medicine to become a medical doctor.”

In response to the Dapchi abduction, US Nigeria Law Group and Advocates for Democracy (AFD), a coalition of NGOs relocated Leah’s step-brother from northeast Nigeria to a safer location. Due to lack of funds, similar assistance could not be provided to the 38 at-risk Christian schoolmates of Leah.

Says Ogebe: “Given this latest development, we once again call on Christian mission schools and civic-minded citizens to provide academic scholarship to endangered Christian females in northern Nigeria.

In this respect, we commend an Abuja school and Kaduna school that partnered with us to provide scholarships for five orphans and IDPs of terrorism and two orphaned siblings.

Once again we urge the federal government to repurpose the Federal Government Colleges as an Education In Emergencies intervention for Safe Schools for at-risk students.

We call on Kano State to release “the Du Merci 16” orphans held hostage by the Hajia Zarau-led ministry of women affairs since December 25th 2019.

Following the discharge and acquittal of humanitarian Prof Solomon Tarfa on bogus forgery charges, Kano government is duty bound to release these orphans back to Du Merci.

The orphans held in Nassarawa Government Orphanage are eleven - six boys snd five girls - plus another five children held in Gaya.

Four of eleven children are converted to islam and their names changed, they are;

1. Solomon Tarfa a boy, 12 yrs old, his name was changed to Suleiman Muhammad,

2. Emmanuel Jr Tarfa, a boy, 16 yrs old, his moslem name is Abdullah Sani .

3. Joshua Tarfa is now Abdullahi Mohammad, 14 yrs old,

4. Comfort Tarfa, now Rukaiya Muhammad, also called Zahida,

The other seven children who stood their ground and refused to be islamize and have their names changed are:

1. Moses Tarfa, boy, 16 yrs old

2. Paul Tarfa, boy, 15 yrs

3. Deborah Tarfa, girl, 17 yrs

4. Peace Jnr Tarfa, girl, 17 yrs.

5. David Tarfa, boy, 10 yrs .

6. Devine Tarfa .

7. Elizabeth Tarfa, girl, 13

They have stayed in the govt orphanage for over two years without going to school. They lost two academic years out of three years wasted in government custody where some have lost the ability to speak fluently in English.

Kano must end its unlawful abduction and Islamization of these kids and while we commend the US and UK embassies for taking special note of this appalling case, we urge them to recognize this as an egregious example of state-sponsored religious persecution.

Finally we demand that the federal government give account of the Chibok girls in America under their management who have failed to produce any university graduate in seven years while their non-government-controlled counterparts have attained Master’s degrees.

•Letter from Sharia commission alleging voluntary conversion to Islam

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