Lear Sharibu. Photo credit: baptistnews.com On 19 February, Paastor E. A Adeboye of the Redeemed Christian Church of God directed all his Pastors to intensify prayers for the release of Lear Sharibu, one of the school girls abducted by Boko Haram insurgents in Dapchi, Yobe State, on 19 February 2018. She was among the 109 girls abducted but yet to be released because she refused to renounce her (Christian) faith.

Adeboye said: “I hereby again, call and direct all Pastors in The Redeemed Christian Church of God, all over the world, not to stop but to intensify their prayers for the release of Leah Sharibu. I also call on every parent, all over the world, to use whatever influence they have, to ensure that Leah Sharibu, as well as other children in captivity, is released. We shall not relent in our prayers for the captives including the school children that were abducted recently in Niger State by the fundamentals.”

The fears of Adeboye and other Christians like him have now been confirmed (not a worst case scenario of death for her, though) by a United States-based group, US-Nigeria Law Group, which reported that Sharibu had given birth to a second child in captivity.

Emmanuel Ogebe, Convener of the US-Nigeria Law Group, was quoted by The Guardian, “Despite an offer by an American pastor last month to surrender himself in exchange for Leah’s freedom, there has been no tangible response from her captors.”

“That notwithstanding, intelligence received on the status of Leah indicates that she has delivered a second child in captivity. While we have not corroborated this by multiple sources, a usually knowledgeable source indicated that she delivered a second child late last year… We are still investigating this.”

The group further said “until she is released, Leah remains a poster child and symbol of a failed state that can’t protect its children”.

Worse still, the organization condemned the “full-scale onslaught on education in Nigeria by Islamist extremists: Boko Haram wars against education; bandits mass kidnap of children in school; and religious violence against Christian mission school owners in Ilorin over hijab controversy.”