— A British member of parliament has launched a protest outside the Nigerian embassy in London to help free kidnapped school girl Leah Sharibu, who friends say is being held by terror group Boko Haram for refusing to renounce her Christian faith.
Liberal Democrat MP Tom Brake is staging a sit-in outside the Nigerian High Commission in central London to put pressure on the Nigerian government, he says.
Sharibu,15, was kidnapped alongside more than 100 schoolgirls in February this year.
Boko Haram freed the other schoolgirls after government negotiations, but Sharibu was kept behind.
“There cannot be a clearer example of someone whose human rights are being ignored than that of Leah who is being detained just because she has maintained her Christian faith,” Brake said in an email interview with CNN.
Brake is taking part in the protest organized by advocacy group Church World Service that will last 200 hours as Thursday marks 200 days since Sharibu, who turned 15 in captivity, was taken.
Organizers said members of the advocacy group will take turns to seat at a school desk placed in front of the commission’s office with Sharibu’s portrait.
Her parents told CNN that the returning schoolgirls told them their daughter had refused to convert to Islam while they were kidnapped.
Most of the students abducted from their boarding school in Dapchi village, Yobe State were released after four weeks.
“The girls that returned said Leah said she will not deny Christ or turn to be a Muslim,” Leah’s father, Nathan told CNN.
Leah’s father said he has been humbled by the international campaign for his daughter’s release.