Escaped teenager believes Boko Haram leader Shekau is the father of her child

TEENAGER Meenah Dawah has revealed that Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau may be the father of her baby as she was held captive by the terrorist group for 27 months during which time the extremist repeatedly had sex with her.

 

Meenah, who escaped when the Nigerian Army attacked a Boko Haram camp early this year, was just 17 years old when she was forced to watch her parents being shot dead by the Boko Haram insurgents in her village Konduga in Borno State. During the raid, she was abducted but managed to escape after 27 months with a baby she claims may belong to Shekau.

 

According to Meena, while she was in captivity, she had to care for children born to Boko Haram commanders and members, She added that she constantly heard girls scream as they were raped and in some cases watched some of them being tortured for refusing to change their faith. 

 

Furthermore, she described how on occasions some top leaders of Boko Haram would come into the camp where she was being held and she would be asked to entertain them. It was on such visits she insists that Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau slept with her.

 

Meena added:  “He would just appear from nowhere like a ghost and would be panicking all the time, issuing instructions.  He is a softly spoken man and it is almost as if he whispers, so if you are meeting him for the first time, you would never be scared of him.

 

“But I soon learned that after every whisper something dangerous would happen somewhere in Nigeria. Some of the camps have everything, electricity, water and television, with different kind of electronics."

 

Revealing more about the nature of the modus operandi of Boko Haram, Meena added that Shekau would constantly ask captured girls to join the armed insurgency. She added that Shekau has many children from a lot of different women, who were all captured in Boko Haram raids.

 

“He once asked me if I was willing to fight for the cause, to which I answered no and he told me I could be a fighter or a domestic slave.  I didn’t want to speak to him in case what I said offended him as all it would take was one wrong word and he would have had me killed.

 

 “We moved a lot and depending on the camp and my role varied and it was so tough travelling around with a baby strapped to my back.  Some of us women would go to Maiduguri to buy things when we have shortages and a commander or two would follow us and we also acted as decoy when villages were ambushed, Meena added.

 

Adding that they were constantly used as pawns when fighting began, Menna added that she would be sent to villages talk to people and then the fighters would come behind her and start killing. She added that some of the abducted girls would also have to carry guns and bombs or even rocket-propelled grenade launchers.

 

Meenah managed to escape when she was badly wounded after the Nigerian army attacked Boko Haram's camp and was left for dead. After having the bullet removed from her leg, she said her sole surviving relative, an uncle, has not receive her warmly because he is ashamed of my child whose paternity is not only questionable but could be  Shekau's.

 

Shekau has repeatedly said that under Islamic law, girls captured in jihadist raids can be used as sex slaves or married off to Mujahedeen fighters. he has already threatened to marry off the 234 schoolgirls abducted from Government Girls Secondary School Chibok on April 14.

 

Courtesy Nigerian News Watch.....