Boko Haram leader says kidnapped girls married off

Lagos: The leader of the Nigerian Boko Haram insurgents, Abubakar Shekau, has in a new video said the over 200 abducted schoolgirls have been married to members of the group.

The video, released Friday, came to alter the general expectations from Nigerians that the girls might be released Friday following improved negotiations with the terrorists somewhere in the Chad Republic.

The girls were abducted from Chibok town in Borno state on the night April 14-15.

A Xinhua reporter who watched the video in the country's northeastern city of Maiduguri, said the Boko Haram leader also disowned Danladi Adamu, the man who claimed to be the scribe of the sect.

Adamu quoted Shekau as saying that there was no ceasefire deal with the Nigerian government.

Last month, Nigeria's defence chief Alex Badeh announced that an agreement had been reached with the Boko Haram insurgents to end the hostilities and release the school girls who were earlier abducted by the terror group.

Badeh said he issued a directive to the members of the armed forces to comply with the ceasefire agreement, and that the Boko Haram, which seeks to enshrine the Islamic Sharia law in the Nigerian constitution, had also assured that the school girls and all other people in their captivity were alive and well.

Nigeria, Africa's most populous country, is currently grappling with security challenges, including the insurgency of Boko Haram.