Reuters reported that about 15 girls featured in the video released to local officials on Tuesday, saying they were from the Government Girls Secondary School in Chibok and pleading with the Nigerian government to cooperate with Boko Haram on their release.
In the video, the girls said they were being treated well but wanted to return home to their families.
Reuters reported that mothers Rifkatu Ayuba and Mary Ishaya said they recognised their daughters, Saratu and Hauwa, in the video, while a third mother, Yana Galang, identified five of the missing girls. Local officials said more identifications were needed.
“The girls were looking very, very well,” Yana Galang said in a telephone interview with the Thomson Reuters Foundation after viewing the video at a screening organised by officials in Maiduguri.
The mothers were invited to the viewing centre by the Chairman of Chibok Local Government Area, Bana Lawan, who confirmed that he had paid their travel costs to Maiduguri.
“They were definitely our daughters... all we want is for the government to bring back our girls,” said Galang, adding all the girls were wearing hijab in the video.
No member of Boko Haram was visible in the video and local officials were not immediately available to give details on how they received the video.
“We only heard a man’s voice and saw his finger pointing at the girls one after the other,”Reuters quoted Galang as saying.
She said the girls in the video spoke in Hausa language and Kibaku, the local Chibok language.
Galang said one mother, Ayuba, was relieved to see her daughter as she had heard a rumour shortly after the kidnapping that her daughter had been killed by Boko Haram.
“She was very happy to see her in the video... her daughter is alive,” Galang said.
Shehu Sani urges negotiation with sect
Reacting to the new development that the mothers identified their daughters in the new video, the senator representing Kaduna Central and former negotiator on the release of 219 Chibok girls abducted by the Boko Haram, Sheu Sani, said the Islamic group had no option but to agree to the negotiation on the release of the schoolgirls.
Sani said the terrorists had lost the ground to the military since President Muhammadu Buhari assumed office and advised the insurgents to embrace dialogue and free the girls.
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