The Nigerian Islamist militant group Boko Haram Monday claimed responsibility for the abduction of schoolgirls in the northeast region of Nigeria, a media report said.
The claim is believed to have been made by the Boko Haram leader, Abubakar Shekau, in a new video, Nigerian newspaper Premium Times reported.
The video lasts 56 minutes and 58 seconds, and shows Iman Shekau speaking from a script, surrounded by heavily armed fighters, backed by an armored personnel carrier, and two other armed vehicles.
Iman Shekau said, "I am the one that took your girls. Are you the one that created the girls? I will sell them in the market. I have my own market of selling human beings. It is Allah, the owner that instructed me to sell. I will sell the girls."
And he added, "It is Allah that instructed us, until we soak the ground of Nigeria with Christian blood and so called Muslims contradicting Islam. After we have killed, killed, killed, and get fatigue and wondering on what to do with smelling of their corpses, smelling of Obama, Bush and Jonathan worried us then we will open prison and be imprisoned the rest. Infidels have no value."
Shekau said, "Just because I took girls in Western school they are worried. I say they (the girls) should desert the school. They should go and marry. Stupid people. Talking about human rights and democracy. Nonsense. People that are doing same sex marriage and saying they are leaders."
And he added, "I will imprison Jonathan's daughter, any one that turn to Islam will be saved. For me anyone that embraces Islam is my own. Stupid Jonathan, you will be surprise. Until the land is soaked with blood."
Later he said, "This is a war against Christians and democracy and their constitution, we have not started, we will be in Abuja, and in your state. This war is against Christians, I mean Christians, generally the infidels. Allah says we should finish them when we get them."
Shekau boasted in the video that he has no business with infidel's money, "I have no time with your trillion. I am working for Allah and will die for it. No one can stop me. You killed Mohammed Yusuf. Are you not saying he is even better than Shekau? Even if you kill me, other fighters will rise better than me, I am nothing and worthless before Allah who I am working for. You are sitting with Christians and saying we are one, saying there is no difference. We are not one with infidels."
The girls were kidnapped from the dormitory of Government Secondary School, Chibok, on the night of April 14.
President Goodluck Jonathan Sunday had dismissed news that the government was negotiating with the insurgents to secure the release of the abducted schoolgirls in Chibok town of the northeastern state of Borno.
"The government cannot negotiate with faceless people," said Jonathan, while reassuring parents, guardians and all Nigerians that government would rescue all the abducted girls.
The actual number of girls kidnapped is yet to be verified but sources say over 200 girls have been reported missing.
US is helping find kidnapped Nigerian girls: White House
The US is assisting the Nigerian government to find and free the schoolgirls abducted by militants, the White House said Monday.
US assistance to Nigeria focuses on information-sharing and improving Nigeria's forensics and investigative capacity, Xinhua quoted White House spokesperson Jay Carney as saying at a press briefing.
He added that "we view what has happened there as an outrage and a terrible tragedy".
Carney said President Barack Obama has been briefed several times on the issue and his national security team is monitoring the situation closely.
"Boko Haram is a terrorist organisation with heinous and malicious intent," Carney said.
At a press briefing Monday, State Department spokesperson Marie Harf said information that US has indicates that many of the girls have likely been moved out of the country to neighbouring countries.
In November, US blacklisted Boko Haram as a terrorist organisation and slapped sanctions on it, including denied access to US financial institutions, a freezing on its assets in US banks and a ban on doing business with or providing support to it.
