A young girl who was taken into captivity by the Boko Haram insurgents over two years ago has narrated the gory tale of how the sect leader, Abubakar Shekau, made her his sex slave and got impregnated her during the process.
Speaking exclusively to IQ4News’ Prince Dickson, the victim who identified herself as Meenah Dawah (pseudonym) disclosed that she escaped from her captors earlier in the year.
She explained how the insurgents made her watch as they murdered her parents in their village located at Konduga, Borno State, while she was only 17 years old.
Dawah further stated that she escaped the insurgent’s camp following a raid by the military adding that she got pregnant for Shekau during her 27-month captivity.
The insurgents shot her in the leg during her escape bid. The bullet was later removed at the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital in Borno State.
The escapee further revealed the ordeal of different girls who screamed helplessly each time they were being raped by the insurgents.
The victims were usually tortured severely by the men for being obstinate about converting to the Islamic religion.
According to Dawah, she was in charge of the welfare of children born to Boko Haram commanders and members.
The former prisoner recollected that she was raped by different commanders of the sect including the leader, Shekau.
She said, “He would just appear from nowhere like a ghost. He seems to be panicking all the time and issuing instructions. He is a softly spoken man – it is almost as if he whispers, 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. Depending on the camp, some of the camps have everything, electricity, water and television, with different kind of electronics.
“He once asked me if I was willing to fight for the cause, to which I answered no, he told me I could be a fighter and a domestic slave. I didn’t want to speak to him in case what I said offended him.
“All it would take was one wrong word and he would have had me killed. I thought he was drinking or taking something whenever he came, one could notice maybe he lost men or something was not right. We moved a lot and depending on the camp, my role varied, it was so tough travelling around with a baby strapped to my back.
“Abu has many kids from many different women. Some of us women would go to Maiduguri to buy things when we have shortage, and a commander or two would follow us, and we acted as decoy when villages are ambushed.
“I’d be sent in to talk to people, then they’d move in behind me and start killing.Some of us girls would also have to carry guns, and often bombs too, there was this girl, she was forced to carry a rocket-propelled grenade launcher on her shoulder, then we had few men in that particular camp.”
Now, the former captive who now has a baby seeks support after her uncle, who is her only surviving family member rejected her.
She said, “My uncle will not have me because he is ashamed of my child whose paternity is not only questionable but is dangerous if it is Shekau.
“Before my parents were shot in the attack on our village, my dad had made plans for me to go and finish my secondary school in Government Girl Secondary School Shaffa, where we have a distant relative, but she was also killed in an attack on her way back from a market in that area.
“I know I am intelligent and willing to learn, but where do I start from?”
