54 girls in B’Haram video identified as abducted pupils

No fewer than 54 of the girls shown in the video released on Monday by Boko Haram have been identified by their parents.
The video was shown to the parents, pupils and teachers of the Government Secondary School, Chibok, security men and some officials of the Borno State Governmentat in the Government House, Maiduguri on Tuesday.


Isa Gusau, Special Adviser to Governor Kashim Shettima on Communications, however, explained in a statement
that the names were “currently being compared with school records as well as the ones published some days back to ensure accuracy.”

“The exercise continues at the Government House and it is hoped that more names will be established by parents, students and teachers as well as management of the
affected school,”  Gusau added.
The statement reads in part, “Governor Shettima has confirmed that the young girls shown in a video released by Boko Haram are part of the schoolgirls abducted at the
Government Secondary School, Chibok following a night attack on April 14, 2014.

“Fifty four of the girls in the video have been identified by their names at an exercise that involved some parents of
the girls, fellow students that include those that escaped the abduction, some teachers, security men and some officials of the state government led by the Chief of Staff to
the Government House,Abubakar Kyari.

“The parents and students were conveyed to the Government House in Maiduguri to make for an open identification.
 “Governor Shettima announced this in Abuja today during a press briefing held after a peaceful procession by a coalition of civil society bodies and activists under the
Bring Back Our Girls initiative in Abuja.
“Shettima said the figures of those identified by their names were climbing as the exercise went on at the Government House in Maiduguri.

He was briefed every 30 minutes. Initially, while he was addressing the BBOG group,
36 names had been identified but before his press briefing an hour later, the number had climbed to 54 which he then told journalists. “He had on Monday directed the identification to be conducted.

The Chairman of Chibok Local Government
Area and other government officials were made to mass produce the video. “But after the exercise in Chibok, Governor Shettima
directed for another round of verification to be conducted at the Government House in order to cross-check findings so as not to mislead the public.

“The second exercise confirmed the preliminary exercise inChibok.”
 Before the statement, Reuter said one of the parents had identified her daughter in the  video. It quoted the Chairman of the Parent-Teacher Association of the school, Dumoma Mpur, as saying that the woman
watched the video on television on Monday evening and spotted her daughter among the girls sitting on the ground and wearing veils.

 “The video got parents apprehensive again after watching it but the various steps taken by the governments and the coming of the foreign troops are boosting our spirit, even
though I have not seen even one soldier in Chibok yet,” Mpur said. A Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Mr. Femi Falana(SAN), also
said that some of the parents had identified their children in the video.

Falana, who addressed members of the National Conference Committee on Civil Society, Labour, Youths and Sports in Abuja on Tuesday, said, “Some parents that   we
have spoken with said that they have watched the video and have been able to identify their children.”