>
The leader of Boko Haram, Abubakar Shekau, has given a condition under which the remaining Chibok school girls in the sect’s captivity would be released.
Over 100 of the 276 girls abducted from Government Secondary School, Chibok, Borno state, in 2014, are still in Boko Haram custody.
In a video Shekau released about 24 hours after President Muhammadu Buhari visited Borno, the Boko Haram leader said the school girls would be set free if the federal government let go of the sect members currently in detention.
He also asked Buhari not to return to Borno, saying the sect is fully on ground in the North East, adding that the insurgents would attack the president if he returns to the state.
It would be recalled that Boko Haram had launched an attack few hours after Buhari paid a condolence visit to the state over the killing of 30 persons in Auno, a community near Maiduguri, on Sunday.
“Buhari came to Maiduguri pretending to be a good man but he is not. He shouldn’t try to return to Maiduguri again.
“Buhari, fear your Creator. God said you don’t have up to a spider’s web. But you think you are a major general. l swear, you are nothing. Buhari, I am talking to you, you’ll know no peace. Don’t come back to Maiduguri.
“Just go and sit down and think over my comments. And if you think, I am the one disrupting your affairs, honestly I am not. You have deceived the people by telling them you are a just leader; carry on.
“Those who are shouting Bring Back Our Girls, Bring Back Our Girls, the only way to have those girls back is for our men in prison to be released,” Shekau said in the video.
The Boko Haram leader also dismissed the claim of Chief of Army Staff, Lt. General Tukur Buratai, that the insurgents have been defeated. He insisted that his men have an upper hand in the war.
“Buratai, I am addressing you in your own language. I am speaking your language but you may not understand it. You claim you have defeated us but it is a lie. You are a real liar,” he said.
Shekau also mocked followers of Ibraheem El-Zakzaky, leader of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN) and the Tijjaniyya sect led by Dahiru Bauchi.
The Boko Haram leader added that the people of Kano and Kaduna are in trouble.