Father of one of the kidnapped Nigerian girls spoke to the media on Wednesday of the “unworldly” moment he saw his 16 year old daughter’s face on the hostage video released by the group.
The father said from the video he could see that his daughter was not well looked after.
“Henry” as the father prefers to be called said he was happy to see his daughter alive but did not know when she would be coming back home.
“She was wearing a blue hijab, sitting at the front and I was able to identify her,” said Henry, 46, speaking on Wednesday from Chibok, the remote farming town where the abduction took place exactly a month ago.
“When I saw it, I felt as if I was not in my own body, not in this world.”
Henry and other parents had to travel a six hour journey along rutted bush roads to watch the video in the Borno state capital, Maiduguri on Tuesday as there is no TV or internet in Chibok where the kidnapping took place.
They were able to view the video from the state governor’s office.
The mother of the 16 year old was horrified at seeing her daughter who is a Christian wearing a hijab in the video.
Boko Haram leader , Abubakar Shekau bragged about having converted the girls to Islam.
“My daughter is a good Christian, and she normally has a happy face, but when I saw her she was very sad and not looking very good at all,” Henry said. “This is because she is being forced to do what she doesn’t like.”
Boko Haram have demanded that the girls be swapped in exchange for members of its group currently held in jail by the Nigerian government. Nigerian ministers have so far given out mixed signals on the question of negotiations, with some ruling it out, but others saying they are “open to dialogue”.
Henry, who said he felt “like leaving the world” when he first learned of his daughter’s kidnap, said: “I know that is not proper to exchange prisoners or criminals with innocent girls, but everybody in the village is desperate to have their daughters back.
Britain is currently assisting in the rescue operation and the Sentinel R1 spy planes being used in the search are modified business jets fitted with ground mapping radars that will build up detailed 3D images of the vast swathes of terrain where the girls may be held.
Intelligence analysts on board scan the images for activity and suspicious movements, using techniques honed in the hunt against the Taliban in Afghanistan.
Zimbabwean MP for Buhera Joseph Chinotimba has urged Zimbabwe to assist Nigeria by sending Zimbabwean troops to assist in the rescue mission.
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