parents •CAN, Ajakaiye oppose swap • Jonathan off to Congo on regional security
Islamic insurgent group, Boko Haram, has released a new video claiming to show the missing schoolgirls abducted from the Government Girls Secondary School (GGSS), Chibok, Borno State, about three weeks ago.
Leader of the group, Abubakar Shekau, in the video, obtained by the AFP news agency on Monday alleged the children had converted to Islam.
He said they would not be released until all of the Boko Haram members held prisoners by government were freed.
Shekau said Boko Haram's "brothers in arms" had been held in prison for up to five years and suggested that the girls would be released if his "fighters" were freed.
"We will never release them (the girls) until after you release our brethren," he said in the video also broadcast by the CNN and Sky News monitored in Lagos on Monday.
Shekau was shown speaking for 17 minutes before showing what he said were about 130 of the girls, wearing full-length 'hijabs' and praying in an undisclosed rural location.
AFP reported that three of the girls in the video were interviewed in the recording.
The two reportedly said they were Christians and had converted while one said she was a Muslim.
Chibok town where they were abducted from is a predominantly Christian community and many of the girls themselves are Christians.
In the video the girls appeared calm and one said they had not been harmed.
There was no indication of when the video was taken, although the quality was better than previous Boko Haram videos.
At one point an armed man was seen in shot with a hand-held video camera.
President Goodluck Jonathan has accepted help from the United States, Britain, France, China and Israel, which have sent specialist teams to help in the search effort to trace the teenagers.
In the video, Shekau appeared in front of a lime green canvas backdrop wearing combat fatigues and carrying an automatic weapon.
He did not appear in the same shot as the girls at any point.
Speaking in Hausa and Arabic, he restated his claim of responsibility made in a video released earlier on Monday last week, saying the girls had converted to Islam.
Eleven girls were similarly abducted from the Gwoza area of Borno State on May 4.
Catholic Bishop of Ekiti Diocese and Co-Chairman of the Committee on Religion at the ongoing National Conference, Felix Ajakaiye, in fact warned the Federal Government on Monday against negotiating prisoner -exchange with the Boko Haram insurgents in a bid to free the pupils.
He said any negotiation with the terrorist group now would be counter productive and an invitation to trouble.
The Bishop urged the security forces to shun tendency to run strategies of their offensive against the group in the media.
"We have heard talks from the Presidency that they are on top of the situation. But I add they are always on top of the situation but below the action. Or the action we want to have, we didn't have them.
"We are hearing lack of motivation of the security forces and that the insurgents have more sophisticated weapons; where do they get them?
"It is a pity we are hearing negotiation, sometime ago it was amnesty but that failed. If we begin to negotiate in that way, we may be sitting on a keg of gunpowder," he cautioned.
President of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Ayo Oritsejafor, similarly issued a statement on the abduction saga on Monday, warning that the purported conversion of the schoolgirls was a declaration of war against Christians in the country.
The CAN leader, who was reacting to the new video by the Boko Haram, showing the girls reciting the Holy Qur'an, noted that the girls could not be exchanged for the release of any detained Boko Haram members.
He described the detained Boko Haram members as criminals.
Oritsejafor, who spoke through the CAN's National Director of Research, Sunday Oibe, at a press conference in Kaduna, added that the forceful conversion of the girls amounted to persecution of Christians in Nigeria.
Oibe said: "First, these children are Christians and not Muslims and so they cannot be converted to a religion that is not theirs at gunpoint without conviction.
"Besides, is that how conversion is being carried out? All the children displayed are Christians and that is the motive behind the abduction.
"It is simple. Because they are Christians and they represent the church in the eyes of their abductors. Secondly, it smacks of some form of religious persecution.
"If not, why are their captors converting them to another religion? And if they say they will use them as a condition to negotiate for their men in detention, our daughters are not criminals and cannot be used in any way to free their criminal fighters.
"Show us where in Nigeria you have seen Christians fighting and throwing bombs in the name of God.
"We challenge any one to show us where Christians have abducted Muslim children in the name of Christianity.
"We challenge anyone to prove in Nigeria where Christians have taken arms in the name of protecting Christianity or even carry out acts of genocide on helpless and defenceless Nigerians.
"As far as we are concerned, it is a war against Christians and Christianity," Oibe added.
Also reacting on Monday, the leadership of the Northern Elders Council cautioned against undue politicising of the abduction case.
Spokesman for the elders group, Mamman Yusuf, commended the effort of the Jonathan administration in trying to rescue the girls.
Addressing newsmen at the National Conference venue in Abuja, Yusuf said the spirit and tenacity Nigerians adopted in fighting for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the country during the civil war should also be replicated in rescuing the abducted girls.
"We do not need politics to be made out of this abduction case, we expect that the same way the Nigerian nation came together to fight for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the nation and to have one Nigeria during the civil war, it should be the same scenario with different circumstances.
"We do not believe that politics should be made out of this because lives are involved. The unity which this unfortunate tragedy has brought among Nigerians should be devoid of politics and we want to say, politics should take the back seat in the face of national tragedy.
"We just rose from our meeting in Abuja to say we declare total and unequivocal support to the President and Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces, President Goodluck Jonathan, the Nigerian Armed Forces, the entire forces as well as officers and men who are doing their best to rescue the abducted girls.
"We also want to commend our international partners who have offered to lend support to Nigeria because in this age of globalisation, terrorism, security of lives and property, this situation which has united us as a people should be seen as very important," Yusuf added.
Lagos based constitutional lawyer and Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Itse Sagay, while reacting believes that there was nothing unusual in the demand by Shekau that his men currently being detained by government should be freed in exchange for the abducted schoolgirls.
Speaking in a chat with Daily Independent in an interview Sagay said the lives of the girls are very important and the Federal Government must act fast, if possible releasing some Boko Haram suspects to facilitate the safe release of the girls.
He, however, added that the claim by Shekau that all the girls, who are predominantly Christians, have been converted to Islam was erroneous, because of the fact that "you cannot force somebody to accept your religion through threats and intimidation".
Sagay added that Boko Haram's actions will make the girls loathe the religion.
On the other hand, Borno State Governor, Kashim Shettima, said he has watched with very keen interest the video clip shown on the BBC world service.
After watching the clips, Shettima directed transfer of the video into mobile storage devices under the care of some officials, including the Chairman of Chibok Local Government area, who will show the videos to parents, some of the freed students who know their abducted colleagues, teachers and management staff of the GGSS, Chibok, so that the girls in the video can be identified to ascertain if they are part of the abducted students or otherwise.
The Governor was, however, optimistic about the video.
Already, some concerned individuals in Maiduguri and Abuja are on the request of the Governor, making efforts to contact parents and relations of some of the abducted girls, who might be within reach to get feedback regarding the video.
In a statement by Special Assistant to the Governor, Isa Gusau, Shettima viewed the development as encouraging, especially given the fact that some of the girls said they were not harmed.
The Governor expressed the hope that the girls did not speak under duress.
The Presidential Fact-finding Committee on the abduction of the of schoolgirls on Monday met with officials of some countries that have offered to assist Nigerian authorities secure the release of the girls.
Spokesperson for the committee, Kingsley Osadolor, said in a statement that the meeting which lasted several hours took place in Abuja, and covered issues within the committee's terms of reference.
The European Union (EU) also on Monday demanded unconditional release of the abducted girls.
The call came at the conclusion of its council meeting in Brussels.
Another report from Jos said men of the Plateau State Police Command have arrested a middle aged man suspected to be a Boko Haram member allegedly caught spying on policemen at the Mobile Police Barracks, Sector 8 in Jos.
The incident followed persistent complaints by members of the public on the existence of some strange persons in some parts of Jos and Bukuru areas of the state.
Meanwhile, President Goodluck Jonathan has left Abuja for Oyo in the Republic of Congo to consult with his Congolese counterpart, Denis Sassou Nguesso, on the current security situation in West and Central Africa ahead of the meeting of the African Union's Peace and Security Council, which opens in the Congolese town on Wednesday.
Jonathan who was accompanied by some of his principal aides and advisers is expected back home today.
Culled from Daily Independent
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