Boko Haram releases video of abducted students

Boko Haram has released a video of students whom they claim to have abducted last Friday.

A video, first published by an online newspaper HumAngle, shows one of the students urging the Nigerian government to withdraw its troops, saying “nothing can stop Boko Haram militants.”

In a six-minute, 30-seconds video, the student called on the government to close all schools except Islamic schools and to withdraw the Nigerian army from Borno. The student was speaking both English and Hausa.

The students appeared to be in a difficult situation because the video showed their faces covered in dust in the bush.

The students added that some of them had been shot dead. He asked the government to fulfil the terrorist’s demands for their release.

In the video, the voice of a man who appears to be a member of Boko Haram can be heard saying that they are showing the students to Katsina State Governor Aminu Bello Masari because he sees that they are in good health.

Governor Masari said on Wednesday that they knew the whereabouts of the students of the Kankara Government Secondary School, who were abducted last Friday.

The governor said reports indicate that the children are now in the Zamfara State Forest, “and if not all of them, most of them are there.”

On Tuesday, Boko Haram released an audio message claiming to be the one who abducted the students.

In a 4:30 minute message, the group’s leader, Abubakar Shekau, said they took the students in their ongoing fight against the Nigeria Army.

The abduction has drawn strong criticism from President Muhammadu Buhari’s government, which is seen by Nigerians as negligent in maintaining security.