In an exclusive interview with The Nation in a military detention facility in Borno State, 25-year-old Joseph David said he was worried that his hands were soiled by so much blood that he might never find forgiveness with God and the relations of his victims.
He also sensationally revealed how he forcibly married two of the more than 250 girls abducted by the terror sect from a secondary school in Chibok, Borno State in April 2014.
The Christian turned Islamist fighter said the two Chibok girls were part of the benefits that accrued to his office as a Boko Haram commander.
David said that he himself was abducted by the sect from his native Mubi, Adamawa State as a 22-year-old man sometime in 2014.He said he was a student of Adamawa State Polytechnic,Yola at the time he was abducted.
Now 25 and in security custody after he was captured by soldiers during a battle with the sect, David said he was placed on a salary of N500,000 per month or its foreign equivalent.
His hefty pay afforded him the luxury of three wives. The Chibok girls came soon after he took his first wife, Faridah.
Life in Sambisa Forest seemed to be getting rosier by the day until he incurred the wrath of his ‘commander-in-chief’, Abubakar Shekau.
His offence, he said, was that he was treating his wives well while other commanders were abusing theirs.
The punishment for that, he said, was Shekau’s decision to confiscate the women.
“He took the two Chibok girls from me because I treated them well,” David whose Islamic name is Ibrahim Al Hajar, said.He (Shekau) said he did not trust me. He said ,one day,I would run with them back to Nigeria.”David is blaming those he called moles for his frosty relationship with Shekau because, according to him, he simply refused to maltreat his wives the way they were doing theirs.
The three women, he said, were still in Sambisa Forest.
Expressing regrets for all the lives he took while working for the terror sect, he said:
“You know, the lives of people that I have wasted. At the end, I don’t know how it will be…on the day of judgment.
“And I regret because I was a student before Boko haram kidnapped me.
“I want to say sorry because these things that I did,I did them to save my life. If I didn’t do them, they might think I was trying to bring problem within them.
“So, I did those things smartly and logically till the time that God provided way for me to escape.”