By Charles Igbo
The news breaks the hearts of Christian faithfuls world-wide, especially in Nigeria.
Christianity’s poster girl, Leah Sharibu, has finally succumbed to the wickedness of the devils. She has finally been defiled. Her young heart and spirit have finally been broken.
Reports indicate that Leah has been forced to convert from Christianity, the religion she held tightly to her heart, to Islam, the religion she rejected, and which decision cost her the freedom she so cherished, in exchange for a harsh life.
Leah, you would recall, is the young Christian teenage girl who was kidnapped, along with her colleagues, by the terrorist group, Boko Haram, from Dapchi Secondary School, Yobe State.
A couple of days later, the girls were brought back to the jubilation of the natives and Nigerians. The jubiliation was because their fate was unlike that of the Chibok girls, earlier kidnapped, but who, not even one of them, was released until many months later. Till date, over a hundred of them are still in captivity.
But the joy which followed the release of the Dapchi girls soon turned into a nightmare.
One of the girls, Leah, was denied freedom. The  terrorists refused to release her. Their reason was horrifyingly provocative.
They said she refused to deny her religion, her faith.
Leah refused to convert from Christianity to Islam. So, they took her back to their den.
Since then, she has not been seen in the civilised world. Every pressure, every lobbying from within and outside Nigeria, for her release has failed.
Hopes had been raised and dashed. A couple of times, news had filtered in that she had been killed. But such stories were quickly debunked by the Federal Government who always assured that she was alive and well.
A few days ago, a released captive, Jennifer, assured an excited nation that Leah was alive and well. She, however, revealed that she did not personally see Leah. She informed that it was another captive, Alison Gada, told her that Leah was alive and well. Apparently, Alison had seen Leah. That piece of news was celebrated by Nigerians and the media.
But now comes a dampener.
News have strongly filtered in that Leah has so been broken by her circumstances that she has been forced to marry a top Commander of the sect, the sect which turned her life inside out and upside down, and, ruined it.
And, as if to rub pepper on a fresh wound, she has put to bed, a baby boy.
The news has shocked the Nation, and devastated the Christian Community.
Her father says he was not in a frame of mind to even fathom the import of the news. He says it is not true, and not possible.
A family spokesperson, Dr Gloria Puldu, dismissed the story. She said she met, one on one, with Jennifer, the former captive, who confimed to her that she met with Alison, and that Alison revealed she saw a healthy Leah.
Puldu, a senior lecturer of political science, at the University of Jos, however, said that all the family wanted was to have its daughter alive, pregnant or not pregnant, baby or no baby.
Her words: ” I have seen reports that Leah had a baby boy. That is just a rumour as far as we are concerned. What we even desire is to see a proof of life so that we can see Leah by ourselves. If they are able to see Leah alive, then we will understand.
“The most important thing is that we want her to be alive. And, if she is alive, we will thank God for that. They should release her despite whatever condition she is in. It doesn’t matter whether she is pregnant or has a baby.”
But it seems, like most Nigerians, Leah’s family is in self denial of, well, her new status.
But here is why people are nervous, and believe the marriage, pregnancy and birth story.
A Nigerian Journalist, Ahmad Salkida, who has unfettered access to  Boko Haram, has been quoted by a Priest, Rev. Joel Billi, as telling him that Leah has become a mother. Rev. Billi is the President of Ekklesiyar Yan’uwa (Church of the Brethren).
The Priest told a Correspondent of The Sunday Punch that Salkida told him of the new status of Leah, the same day he called him to tell him of the beheading, by Boko Haram, of Rev. Lawan Andimi, the Chairman of the Michika branch of the Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN.
Instructively, any information from Journalist Saldika on Boko Haram is always correct.
In self denial as everybody is, Leah’s fate is not quite unexpected. She has been with the sect so long that it was just a matter of time for what seems to have happened, now, to happen.
