Chibok schoolgirls in good condition, says Boko Haram spiritual leader .

A man claiming to be a “Boko Haram’s spiritual teacher” has told the BBC World Service radio that the hundreds of girls abducted in Chibok on April 15 are “feeding very well” and in “good state of health.”

A screengrab taken on May 12, 2014, from a video of Nigerian Islamist extremist group Boko Haram obtained by AFP shows girls, wearing the full-length hijab and praying in an undisclosed rural location. Boko Haram released a new video on claiming to show the missing Nigerian schoolgirls, alleging they had converted to Islam and would not be released until all militant prisoners were freed. A total of 276 girls were abducted on April 14 from the northeastern town of Chibok, in Borno state, which has a sizeable Christian community. Some 223 are still missing.

The man, who had his voice disguised in the interview, also said that although most of the Christians among the girls had been converted to Islam, those who objected were not forced.

However, he reiterated the sect’s previous position that unless the Federal Government frees members of the sect imprisoned in government facilities, the Chibok schoolgirls would not be released.

He said: “I joined the group in 2004. We are pushing for a Sharia state. We want the Nigerian government to release our members. If they release our members today, we will release the girls tomorrow. You will see all of them as Abubakar Shekau, our leader, promised the media.

“Those who agreed to convert to Islam have been converted and those who refused have been left alone. There is no forced conversion in Islam.

“Allah commands us to treat everyone equally. We are not discriminating against them; we treat all of them equally. They all are healthy. They feed well.

“Under Islam, killing women and children is not acceptable. But if they are fighting you, then you must fight them. But if they do not attack you, you leave them. We only go after those who give information to our enemy.”

The report of the positive condition of the girls comes a day after coordinator of the National Information Centre, Mike Omeri, said the abducted girls were close to regaining their freedom, as security agents have been obtaining useful information from the arrested chief intelligence officer of Boko Haram.

Jonathan faults critics

Meanwhile, President Goodluck Jonathan has lambasted those criticising him and his administration for not doing enough to rescue the over 200 Chibok schoolgirls.

Jonathan’s defence is contained in a statement by Presidential Spokesman, Dr. Reuben Abati, to the Washington Post.

In the 187 word article, Abati claimed that contrary to the allegation that President Jonathan was not doing enough to confront the Boko Haram threat and rescue the schoolgirls, Nigeria was aggressively confronting the insurgents with a view to bringing back the girls.

Jonathan’s response followed a July 3 editorial by the Washington Post, accusing him of little effort to bring back the missing girls.

Abati said while Jonathan was working quietly to rescue the girls, it was wrong to accuse him of not doing enough in that regard.

He said the strategy being adopted by Jonathan was to ensure that the girls’ lives were not put at risk.

He wrote: “The claim that the President has a “do nothing” attitude toward rescuing the girls is no different than what was written about President Obama’s decision not to disclose his efforts to seize and arrest the alleged ringleader of the 2012 terrorist attacks in Benghazi, Libya, that killed four Americans — until he did just that.

“Mr. Jonathan won’t put the lives of these girls at risk by publicly revealing details of the recovery operation for the sake of satisfying his critics.

“Even before the abductions, the President was engaged in international intelligence sharing involving West Africa, Europe and the United States, and he had also launched the Counter Terrorism Centre in Nigeria.

“He has been working intensely on the very challenging situation posed by Boko Haram since assuming office, including declaring a state of emergency in May 2013 in the three most affected northern states.”