Senator Shehu Sani has thrown his
weight behind the CNN proof-of-life video, which showed 15 of the schoolgirls
abducted from Chibok town two years ago, saying that the video is credible.
Sani and
his colleagues in the Senate had on Thursday demanded updates from the nation’s
security agencies on attempts to rescue the girls.
“With the video and other things brought in, we need the security agents to
brief us on what they have been able to achieve. We expect the security chiefs
to speak to the Senate early next week, ” Sani told CNN by phone yesterday.
Sani was
the first Nigerian senator to comment on the proof-of-life video, calling it
credible during an interview on CNN’s Christiane Amanpour.
Asked why
the security chiefs had not appeared before the Senate at any point in the last
two years, Sani told CNN by phone that the government’s focus had been on
military action against Boko Haram, the terrorist group thought to be
responsible for the kidnapping.
“The
military has succeeded in rescuing hundreds of women and girls, but CNN’s video
has now given the Senate renewed impetus and added a new dimension.
“CNN’s
reporting of the Chibok girls’ proof-of-life video makes it clear that the
kidnapping was not a hoax and that the girls had not been killed or sold as sex
slaves,” said Sani.
Images of
a broken Rifkatu Ayuba who recognized her daughter, Saratu, in the video
produced by her captors and obtained exclusively by CNN prompted renewed
outrage over the 2014 kidnappings.
From
protesters marching in Nigerian cities to social media users in distant
countries raising their voices, the story stirred fresh outpourings of anger
and frustration at the atrocity, and the official response.
The video,
obtained by CNN and showing 15 girls in robes identifying themselves, is
believed to have been made in December during negotiations between the
government and parties claiming to represent Boko Haram.
Shot on
Christmas Day, it was released by someone eager to give the girls’ parents hope
that some of their daughters were still alive, and to prompt the government to
help secure their release.
Two of the
three women to whom CNN screened the footage recognised their daughters; a
third was distressed that it did not show her daughter.
A
classmate of the missing girls also identified several of the teens in the
footage.
Sources: Thidaylive
