Abayomi Olonishakin, on Monday said the demand by Boko Haram terrorists that their members in captivity be swapped with the abducted Chibok girls was a political one, and would have no effect on military operations to flush them out.
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His and other parents’ similar reactions were prompted after Boko Haram released a video over the weekend claiming that while the group still had the schoolgirls, some of them had been killed from airstrikes meant for its militants.
“We are being extremely careful”, Information Minister Lai Mohammed said in a statement.
Their faces bleak, a group of several dozen girls could be seen wearing long Islamic gowns, guarded by a masked man in camouflage, in the video released Sunday. The Nigerian government said it is in talks with the militants behind the video, but that it needs to be sure the officials are speaking to the right people, the BBC reported.
“We are not happy living here”, the girl said in the video.
Esther Yakubu, mother of one of the kidnapped schoolgirls, cries after seeing her daughter Dorcas in a video released by Boko Haram.
“I have seen her”, Samuel Yaga, father of abducted schoolgirl Serah Samuel, said to the BBC Hausa service. “It is extremely hard and rare to hit innocent people during airstrike [s] because the operations is done through precision attack on identified and registered targets and locations”, said Abubakar in a statement reported by Premium Times.
“Oh you, my people and our parents, you just have to please come to our rescue: We are suffering here, the aircraft has come to bombard us and killed many of us”.
“When I heard her voice, I realised she is my daughter”, Kanu Yakubu told reporters in Abuja.
About 50 girls appear in the video, according to the BBC.
One of the kidnapped girls was found alive in the Sambisa Forest in northeastern Nigeria in May.
In April 2014, Boko Haram militants kidnapped 276 teenage girls from their boarding school in Chibok.
Those who escaped claimed some of the non-Muslim girls had been forced to convert to Islam, while others have been forced to marry Boko Haram members.
Responding on his twitter handle, Salkida said he has stayed within ” the creed of professional journalism”, in all his work and extensive coverage of Boko Haram insurgency since 2006. These attacks have been part of Buhari’s efforts, since he came to power in May 2015, to neutralize Boko Haram.
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The new video was attributed to the original Boko Haram name, not the new Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), suggesting it was released by Shekau’s faction, although it is not known when or where it was filmed.
