Contrary to the claims in some quarters, the people in the video released yesterday by Boko Haram terrorists are indeed some of the abducted female students forcibly taken from their hostel on April 14.

This declaration was made today in Abuja by the Governor of Borno State, Alhaji Kashim Shettima, while speaking with newsmen in Abuja, the Nigerian capital.

“All the girls in that video were identified to be students of the Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok,” Governor Shettima, who had organised a viewing of the video for the Chibok community before setting out for Abuja, announced.

News Express reports that there had been a controversy over the video, with some claiming that the girls therein are not teenagers (the abducted girls are aged 16 to 18) while others claimed that it is unusual for Christian girls to chant praises to Allah and perfectly recite the Quoran as done by the girls in the video. Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau had announced in the video that the girls have become converted to Muslims. Some cynics, among them former Niger Delta militant, Alhaji Mujahid Dokubo Asari, even claim that no girls were abducted and that the entire thing is a scam.

•Photo shows a scene from the video of the abducted girls released by Boko Haram.