Long overdue resolution

August 1, 2025 by Hardball

It is unsurprising that the unreleased girls kidnapped in Chibok, Borno State, in April 2014, continue to make the headlines. The same is true of Leah Sharibu, the unreleased Christian schoolgirl abducted in Dapchi, Yobe State, in February 2018.  The whereabouts of these victims are unknown. The unresolved abductions mean that there is no closure. This is mainly why they remain in the news.

The National Coordinator of the National Counter Terrorism Centre, Maj. Gen. Adamu Laka, brought up the matter again during a multi-agency meeting on anti-kidnapping, organised in collaboration with the United Kingdom’s National Crime Agency in Abuja, on June 29. He made an effort to reassure the public that the authorities had not forgotten these unresolved abduction cases, and were still pursuing freedom for the victims.   

Eleven years after Boko Haram abducted a total of 276 girls from the Government Girls Secondary School in Chibok, Borno State, 87 of them are still believed to be in captivity.

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Also, Leah Sharibu was among the 110 schoolgirls kidnapped by Islamist terrorists from the Government Girls’ Science and Technical College, Dapchi, Yobe State, more than seven years ago. Sadly, five of the kidnapped girls reportedly died in captivity. Others abducted with Leah were set free a month after the incident. Those released were Muslims. Leah, the only Christian among them, was not released because she refused to renounce her faith and convert to Islam.

On the Chibok and Dapchi incidents, Laka said: “Since when they were kidnapped, those who were rescued were not just rescued one time; It was a gradual process. Negotiations were conducted to get them out. Operations were conducted… I was in the theatre, and I know what the military and intelligence agencies put in to rescue the initial set of the Chibok girls.” He added: “We haven’t given up hope on them; some of them were married to some of the insurgents. Some have come out.”

He continued: “There is the issue of this lady, Leah Shaibu. We are not always talking about it. It doesn’t mean we don’t care. It doesn’t mean we’ve forgotten about them. We are still on it. Our prayer is that the whole 87 or 80 plus that are left will be rescued by God’s grace.”

Talk is cheap! The authorities must recognise the time factor, and that the resolution of these kidnap incidents is long overdue.