In Nigeria, Community raise money as ransom to meet Boko haram
Residents, families, including church members of Pastor Bulus Yakuru of the Chibok community in Borno State, have donated money as ransom and are planning to meet with Boko Haram faction leader Abubakar Shekau to secure the life of the pastor, who has been given a one-week ultimatum. SaharaReporter reported this.
The Nigerian newspaper gathered that elders of the Chibok community are now appealing for help to meet to Shekau after raising funds to ensure that Yakuru, whose family and church members are in ‘severe distress’, is not killed by the terrorist group.
The chief Chibok community elder disclosed that all stakeholders had raised some money as ransom and planned to meet with Shekau’s factional terrorist group to pay ransom for Yakuru’s life.
According to the reports, Senior elders in Chibok confirmed that Pastor Yakuru is married with three children, that his wife suffers from severe depression, and desperately hopes that Boko Haram terrorists will not kill him.
Last Friday, the pastor cried out in a video sent by Boko Haram to Nigeria President Muhammadu Buhari, the Borno State government, and the Christian Association of Nigeria, begging for him to have a week to live.
Yakuru had said that he was distressed and wanted to be reunited with his family, church, and relatives.
Boko Haram attacked Pemi village in Borno, just about 20km from the Chibok community, on 24 December 2020, during which the pastor was taken away.
He said, “Before we saw that video, we had already started taking action and contributing together. We raised a lot of money as ransom for our beloved pastor. When we saw the video, it only increased our depression. We need to see Shekau or his men to give them the money.”
“Anyone who can help us reach Shekau and his camp should tell them that we have a ransom to pay, and we plead that Pastor Bulus has not been killed after a week as they say.”
“We had a ransom to pay, and we were willing to pay it. Bruce’s wife is in crisis, and I saw her last week, and she has severe depression,” he said to the news website
In 2014, Book Haram terrorist group kidnapped young schoolgirls in the Chibok community, some of whom have yet to be released to date.
