Nigeria: 1 girl left in hands of Boko Haram

LAGOS, Nigeria — Just one Nigerian schoolgirl is still held by Boko Haram after the extremists released 104 classmates seized in a mass abduction and she “will not be abandoned,” President Muhammadu Buhari said Thursday, with no word on five girls still unaccounted for who are said to be dead and buried.

The president’s statement calls Leah Sharibu “the only Dapchi schoolgirl still in captivity” after the extraordinary release of the girls on Wednesday.

Freed girls and parents have said Sharibu is Christian and still captive “because they want to convert her to Islam.”

Buhari’s statement said “true followers of Islam all over the world respect the injunction that there is no compulsion in religion.” He added that he looked forward to meeting with the girls who were freed.

Also Thursday, the father of one of the five schoolgirls still unaccounted for said he has been told his daughter and others are dead and buried.

Inuwa Garba told The Associated Press that friends of his daughter who were freed told him the 16-year-old died from injuries in the frightened stampede that occurred during the mass abduction in Dapchi a month ago.

“They told me five of the girls died and my daughter, who was among them, was the first to die” the day the girls were seized, Garba said. The survivors told him the bodies were buried in the bush.

“I believe what the girls told me because they were all together and saw what happened,” he said.