Nigeria’s information minister Lai Mohammed Sunday said the rumoured death of the abducted Dapchi girl Leah Sharibu is “absolute fake news” and accused the opposition of wanting to score a political point with the rumours. “I think it’s part of the opposition’s strategies to throw everything at the administration and at the President,” Mohammed said in a statement. 105 girls were released by their Boko Haram abductors about a month later after what the Nigerian government said was a “back-channel” negotiation. While five of the girls died while being conveyed to Dapchi by their kidnappers, Leah was denied freedom because she refused to convert to Islam. Moreso because the Presidency and the military, at different times, have claimed that the insurgents in the Northeast have been degraded or “technically defeated”.

Source: The Guardian February 10, 2019 13:07 UTC