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From Okwe Obi, Abuja
The Boko Haram faction led by Abubakar Shekau has issued a week ultimatum to the Federal Government to effect the release of Pastor Bulus Yakuru who was abducted on Christmas eve in Borno State.
The cleric was abducted in an attack in which about seven people were killed at Pemi village, located approximately 20 kilometres from Chibok, where insurgents had abducted hundreds of schoolgirls.
The pastor had previously appeared in two Boko Haram videos days after the abduction( in December and early January 2021) where he pleaded for the intervention of President Muhammadu Buhari, Governor Babagana Zulum and church leaders.
In a new video, Pastor Yakuru is seen pleading with Buhari, Governor Zulum, and the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) to intervene and secure his release.
While one of the terrorists stood behind him with a knife, the pastor revealed that he was given a one-week ultimatum by his abductors which will end on Wednesday, March 3.
“I’m calling on President Muhammadu Buhari and the governor of Borno to help me because I have been given a one-week ultimatum today, February 24. If you want me alive, I beg you in your capacity as president, governor and our local government chairman to save me from this suffering. I’m calling on the EYN Church of the Brethren president to intervene and secure my release. Please pray for me. Today is the last day I will have the opportunity to call on you in your capacity as my parents and relatives in the country. Anyone who has the intention should help and save me. Please release me from this pain,” Yakuru said.
In January 2020, Boko Haram killed Rev. Lawan Andimi, the district chairman of the Church of the Brethren in Nigeria (EYN) in Michika, Adamawa State.
However, Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Sadiya Umar Farouq, has condemned insurgent attacks on residents of Borno which left 16 persons dead and 60 injured.
Farouq, in a statement by her media adviser, Nneka Ikem Anibeze, described the bombardment of residential areas by insurgents as inhuman and insensitive.
