"Without wasting time, we hereby send a message to the tyrants of Nigeria and other infidels as well as their world tyrants as a whole in Hausa language.
"You people should understand that we only obey Allah, we tread the path of the Prophet. We hope to die on this path and get eternal rest in our graves, rise up in bliss before our Lord and enter Paradise (quotes from the Koran). Our goal is the Garden of Eternal Bliss. May Allah protect us.
Boko Haram denied that they had agreed to a ceasefire in a new video obtained on Friday by AFP, describing the Nigerian government claims as a lie and apparently ruling out future talks.
The group’s leader, Abubakar Shekau, also claimed the 219 schoolgirls kidnapped from the remote northeast town of Chibok, in Borno state, in April had converted to Islam and been married off.
In addition, Shekau said the Islamists were holding a German national, who was kidnapped in Adamawa state, also northeast Nigeria, in July.
The video comes after a surprise Nigerian military and presidency announcement on October 17 that a deal had been reached with the militants to end hostilities.
A senior presidential aide to Goodluck Jonathan also said agreement had been reached to free the schoolgirls, whose abduction sparked global anger and demands for their release.
There was immediate scepticism about both claims because of previous assertions of ceasefires and the identity of the purported Boko Haram envoy at the supposed talks, Danladi Ahmadu.
Violence — and fresh kidnappings — have continued unabated since the announcement, including a triple bombing of a bus station in the northern city of Gombe on Friday that killed at least eight.
Nigeria’s government maintains that talks were ongoing in the Chadian capital, Ndjamena.
But Shekau, speaking in Hausa, dressed in military fatigues and boots with a black turban, and flanked by 15 armed fighters, said: “We have not made ceasefire with anyone…
“We did not negotiate with anyone… It’s a lie. It’s a lie. We will not negotiate. What is our business with negotiation? Allah said we should not.”
He also said he did not know Danladi.
– Kidnapped girls –
There was no indication of when or where the video was shot but it was obtained through the same channels as previous communications from the group.
In it, Shekau mentions the Chibok girls for the first time since a video obtained on May 5, when more than 100 were shown in a rural location dressed in the hijab and reciting verses from the Koran.
Then, the militant leader said many of the girls had converted to Islam but in the latest, he indicated that all of those held had become Muslims.
“Don’t you know the over 200 Chibok schoolgirls have converted to Islam? They have now memorised two chapters of the Koran,” he said.
Shekau previously threatened to sell the girls as slave brides and also suggested that he would be prepared to release them in exchange for Boko Haram prisoners.
In the latest message, he said while laughing: “We have married them off. They are in their marital homes.”
Human Rights Watch said in a report published this week that Boko Haram was holding upwards of 500 women and young girls and that forced marriage was commonplace in the militant camps.
One former hostage said she saw some of the Chibok girls forced to cook and clean for other women and girls who had been chosen for “special treatment because of their beauty”.
– German national –
Shekau’s claim in the video that they were “holding your German hostage” is the first claim of responsibility for the abduction, which happened on July 16.
The German foreign ministry in Berlin said it did not want to comment when contacted by AFP.
Armed gunmen kidnapped the foreigner, who was said to be a teacher at a government technical training centre in Gombi, about 100 kilometres (62 miles) from the Adamawa state capital Yola.
Suspicion immediately fell on Boko Haram, which has repeatedly attacked schools teaching a so-called Western curriculum, as well as teachers and students.
An offshoot of Boko Haram, Ansaru, has previously claimed the kidnapping of at least eight foreigners in northern Nigeria since 2012 but the group has been largely dormant for more than a year.
The group reportedly broke with Boko Haram to specifically target foreigners instead of Nigerians and executed seven expatriates it seized from Bauchi state in 2013.
In January 2012, Boko Haram kidnapped German engineer Edgar Raupach at a construction site on the outskirts of the northern city of Kano.
He was killed in a military raid on a Boko Haram hideout on the outskirts of the city four months later.
Kidnappings for ransom by criminal gangs are common in the oil-producing south. On October 24, armed men shot dead one German national and kidnapped another in Ogun state, southwest Nigeria.
Both were working for the construction firm Julius Berger. The hostage was later released, the company said on Thursday.
A Bus terminal popular called Gombe-line park in Gombe metropolis of Gombe State went up in flames in the early hours of Friday when a tripple explosion rocked the park.
The explosion left over 23 persons dead and many others critically injured.
It also left over twelve 18-Seater buses, some of which belonged to the State Government Transport Company called Gombe line, completely destroyed.
It was gathered that explosives were planted on a vehicle registered in Yobe State.
The Gombe State Police Commissioner, Abdullahi Kudu while on a first hand inspection of the scene told Journalists that the incident which occurred at about 10 am claimed the lives of nine persons.
Similarly, the spokesman for the National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA, Manzo Ezekiel, told AFP that officials of the Agency confirmed five persons dead, fearing that the figure could still be higher even as he said that about 34 people were wounded in the attack.
On the steps already made by the police, Kudu said that three suspected persons were apprehended while trying to run away from the scene after parking a vehicle with Yobe State number plate, suspected to have conveyed the explosives.
He said: “For now, three suspects have been apprehended and we are reasonably suspecting they are the people who brought in the Improvised Explosive Device (IED). It is either the vehicle is parked laden. But we cannot determine that now until our EOD make their investigation”.
Sources from Gombe told Saturday Vanguard that the park had been cordoned off with a police tape while shops and offices around the area had been closed.
They said that the development has sent shivers down the spine of most residents of the town.
As at the time of filing this report, the State Governor, Alhaji Ibrahim Dankwambo was yet to visit the scene.
It will be recalled that explosion also rocked the park sometimes last year.
Gombe shares a border with three northeastern states under emergency rule since May 2013 because of the Boko Haram uprising: Adamawa, Borno and Yobe.
The police chief said he believed the suspected attackers had travelled together from Yobe, where the insurgents are thought to be in control of several towns and cities.
The militants have claimed credit for a series of bus station bombings this year, including two in April and May on the outskirts of the capital Abuja that killed nearly 100 people.
An October 23 attack at a bus station in Bauchi state, which also neighbours Gombe, killed five people, with many again blaming Boko Haram.
