Timothy Olanrewaju, Maiduguri
It was about midday and the sun had disappeared behind a thick cloud at Dapchi, a serene community over 100 kilometres east of Damaturu, the Yobe State capital.
Ironically, there was no signs of rain. It was an unusual cloud which descended on the small community still in pains.
The community was calm, but beyond the tranquility lays an atmosphere of sobriety. Everybody appears anxious at the appearance of a visitor. It is assumed each new visitor has come to bring news of Leah Sharibu, the only girl that is still being held by Boko Haram since the kidnap of 110 school girls at the Government Girls Science and Technical College, Dapchi.
“Are you from Abuja, are you coming to tell us something about Leah? Is she alive?” a middle-age man who later identified himself as Ali Bukar asked Sunday Sun reporter.
Like most residents of Dapchi, he was apparently anxious to hear about Leah as soon as the reporter approached him for comment. The recent Boko Haram video where one Grace, an aid worker with an international humanitarian organization, pleaded she should not be killed same way the insurgents did to Leah, further heightened fears among Dapchi residents about the fate of the girl held captive by Boko Haram.
Community still in grief
Dapchi, headquarters of Bursari Local Government in Yobe State with a population of about 3,000 was relatively unknown until February 18, 2018 when Boko Haram kidnapped the teenage girls at the government girls school located at the outskirts of the town. The insurgents later released some 104 girls following a negotiation with the Federal Government facilitated by an international organization. Before then, five out of the 110 girls died a day after they were kidnapped. Curiously, the insurgents held the only Christian girl, Leah Sharibu till date.
“The incident is still fresh in our minds. We are still in pains. Leah is still with Boko Haram and our town won’t be at peace until she is released,” Yagana Umar told Sunday Sun near the Sharibus’ house at Dapchi.
Human activities have returned to Dapchi, but the echoes of the tragedy of the abduction, the heavy firing of guns on the night of February 18, is still fresh and reverberating in the small community, residents said. Shops at the heart of the community have been reopened, but many residents said commercial activities are yet to pick up fully. “Many are yet to overcome the initial shock and bewilderment that follow the kidnap incident,” a senior official with the local government, said.
Dapchi without the Sharibus
The Sharibus are out of the town. The house, a modest two-room apartment walled with straw, is locked few metres away from the centre of the town where Boko Haram dropped the released 104 girls in March 2018, appeared deserted. Leah’s father works in Adamawa State and the mother, a primary school teacher, had gone to join her husband a week before Sunday Sun visit.
“She’s been alone in the house and it is not good for her health. She has been thinking much about her daughter. Nobody knows if Leah is alive or dead. So, madam travelled to see her husband two weeks ago,” one Fatima Kachalla disclosed.
Some of her neighbours said that they are not aware of her trip. Sunday Sun observed that the Sharibus’ neighbourhood is largely deserted. A few children roam on the street while some men were seated under a Neem tree, discussing the Sharibus’s plight. The time was 1:00p.m. They said they are unaware that Mrs Sharibu was not around.
Hope alive
Though Leah has spent a year and eight months in Boko Haram custody, Dapchi residents said they aren’t giving up hope of her return some day.
“Our hope is alive,” Kachalla Bukar, secretary, association of parents of abducted Dapchi school girls, said. He said the community would not relent in prayers until Leah is safely rescued.
“We believe she is not dead, we are praying and we will continue to pray. We have the hope she will return one day,” he stated. He said that the community was “more worried” since Leah was the only Christian among the abducted girls.
“People outside Dapchi could easily assume we aren’t doing anything because our daughters have been rescued. Ninety-nine per cent of the girls are Muslim, Leah was the only Christian among them,” he said.
Government neglect
Neither the Federal nor state government has commiserated with the parents of the four girls that died in the hands of Boko Haram, residents alleged, insisting that it was one of the various neglects the community has suffered from the authorities since the abduction occurred.
“Our religion and tradition expect you sympathize with those who lost loved ones. Unfortunately, government hasn’t done that. The parents of the four girls that died in the hands of Boko Haram were just left like that, no help, no soothing words, it is unfair,” Kachalla maintained.
However, some parents said about 20 students were given scholarship by the state government to the Nigerian/Turkish College at Mamudo, Yobe State. Sunday Sun visited the school; GGSTC located at the outskirts of the town, but could not have access to some of the classrooms and students dormitory.
It was observed that no renovation has been carried out on the facilities in the school despite the initial hues about the facilities in the premises. However, the District Head of Dapchi, represented by Goni Ibrahim Kachalla (Wakili Hakimi) said the state government distributed some relief materials to the people shortly after the abduction. He said that the community’s traditional leader has asked the community to step up prayers for the safe rescue or return of Leah Sharibu.