President Goodluck Jonathan has
reportedly seen a new video released by Boko Haram, where the abducted school
girls of Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State, spoke about
their ordeal in the hands of the insurgents for the first time and pleaded with
him to secure their release.
The girls were reportedly ill and
are in camps located in Chad, Niger and Cameroon, with one of them nursing a
broken wrist.
The video, according to The Mail
of London, indicated that the girls looked healthy, as eight of them,
dressed in their home-made school uniforms of pale blue gingham, pleaded for
release while standing courageously in front of the camera.
They were reportedly clearly scared,
upset and trying to be brave, with each walking in turn to a spot in front of a
white sheet fixed to a crude frame between the trees.
According to The Mail, four
of the girls can be heard clearly in Hausa language stating that they were
taken by force and that they were hungry.
The video indicated that a tall
girl, aged about 18, said tearfully that “My family will be so worried”, even
as another spoke softly, saying ‘I never expected to suffer like this in my
life.”
Similarly, a third girl was captured
in the video as saying ‘they have taken us away by force’, while the fourth
complained of not getting enough food.
Boko Haram leader, Abubakar Shekau,
reportedly released the new video of the kidnapped girls praying after their
conversion to Islam.
The video, taken by an intermediary
on May 19, has been shown to President Goodluck Jonathan and was intended to
serve as ‘proof of life’ for the girls and to encourage the President to accede
to the terrorists’ demands.
Two earlier videos showed the girls
seated on the ground, dressed in hijabs, reciting the Koran,with Boko Haram
leader, Abubakar Shekau, declaring he would sell them into slavery, or marry
them off to their kidnappers, if members of his sect were not released from
prison.
The Mail said pressure from the international community and criticism
of the President’s slow response to the kidnapping have led to a series of
contradictory pronouncements from his government. Ministers have declared they
will not negotiate with Boko Haram, or consider the release of prisoners, while
official spokesmen have said ‘the window is always open for dialogue’
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