Court sentences one of the abductors of Chibok Girls to 15 years in jail

dimeji akinloye

February 12, 2018 8:09 PM

While handing down judgement, the judge said the convict, who is crippled, was using his disability to draw sympathy.

The Federal High Court sitting in Wawa Cantonment, Kainji, Niger State, has sentenced a

The convict, 35-year-old Haruna Yahaya, bagged the jail term on Monday, February 12, 2018, for participating in the abduction of over 200 schoolgirls in Chibok, Borno State, in 2014.

Yahaya, whose left arm and left leg are crippled, pleaded guilty to the two counts preferred against him by the Federal Government.

He, however, pleaded for mercy, saying he was forced into the terror group.

He was said to have participated in the group’s attacks in Chibok, Chibok Local Government Area of Borno State and Gabsuri town in the Damboa Local Government of the state.

Delivering judgement, the presiding judge said the court was "not fooled" by Yahaya's story, adding that the convict was "using the misfortune of his handicap to draw sympathy."

The judge ruled that the sentence starts counting from Monday, February 12, even though Yahaya has been in detention since 2015.

Chibok girls kidnap

On the night of April 14-15, 2014, the sect invaded the Government Secondary School in Chibok town, Borno State, and kidnapped 276 female students of the school.

Over the next few months, 57 of the schoolgirls managed to escape.

In May 2016, one of the missing girls, Amina Ali, was also found. She claimed that the remaining girls were still in captivity, but that six had died.

ALSO READ: Boko Haram never planned Chibok schoolgirls' abduction

1n October 2016, the terrorists released 21 of the girls while 82 more of them freed in May 2017 in an exchange deal struck by the terror group and the Federal Government.

It was reported that the sect had demanded the release of some of its commanders in the government's custody.

It was alleged that huge amount of money was also received by the notorious group.

Founded by by Mohammed Yusuf in 2002 and later led by Abubakar Shekau, Boko Haram has killed tens of thousands of people in the northeast and displaced over 2.3 million from their homes.

In 2015, the group which had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), was ranked as the world's deadliest terror group by the Global Terrorism Index.

dimeji akinloye