Nigeria’s forgotten schoolgirl from Yobe State, Leah Sharibu, has married at least two Boko Haram leaders including Ali Abdallah who has now become a chief judge of the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) in the Lake Chad basin, a “repentant” terrorist revealed on Tuesday.
Sharibu, a Christian girl, was one of the 110 female students of the Government Girls’ Science and Technical College, Dapchi, Yobe State, who were abducted on February 19, 2018, by the Boko Haram terrorists.
The “repentant” Boko Haram fighter told SaharaReporters on Tuesday that Sharibu’s husband, Abdallah was recently appointed Chief Judge of the terror group in the Lake Chad basin.
“Leah was first married to Abdulrahman after she converted to Islam and they had one child, a baby boy. Her husband was killed in an air raid after which she remarried a top commander, Ali Abdallah to whom she bore a baby girl,” the Boko Haram ex-fighter said.
On January 25, 2020, SaharaReporters reported that Leah Sharibu, a Christian girl kidnapped and held in Boko Haram captivity for over one year, had given birth to a baby boy.
Leah was delivered of the baby after her forceful marriage to a top Boko Haram commander, according to a reliable source close to the terror group.
The source said Leah, who refused to renounce her Christian faith, was forced to accept Islam before being married to a top commander of the terror group.
Also on March 23, 2021, SaharaReporters reported how three years and five weeks since her abduction in Dapchi, Yobe State, a United States-based group, US-Nigeria Law Group, lamented the plight of the abandoned Dapchi “heroine Christian” schoolgirl, Leah Sharibu, with a report she has given birth to a second child in captivity.
It would be recalled that Leah, still held in captivity, was forced to accept Islam before being married off to a top Boko Haram commander after she refused to renounce her Christian faith.
Speaking with SaharaReporters on Tuesday about the development around Sharibu in captivity, the repentant terrorist said, “Leah Sharibu was married off to Ali Abdallah, her second husband after her first husband, Abdulraman was killed in a military air raid.
Asked how he got the information, he said, “We still communicate with former compatriots who are still in the jungle; our aim is to help them abandon terrorism. You know, those of us who laid down arms did so after safety assurances from Nigerian authorities. Following the deal, we’re now serving as agents to convince former compatriots to abandon the ideology.
“Like me, a good number of us abandoned the ideology after realising that we were actually on a wrong path; abducting and killing innocent people for no just course.”
“I had to take the decision to quit terrorism despite formally serving as of of Abubakar Shekau’s close aides before his demise. Yes, I was under Shekau’s tutelage right from kindergarten in Damaturu, the Yobe State capital before relocating to Sambisa forest,” he added.