Boko Haram threatens to sell abducted schoolgirls after group admits to the kidnappings

The leader of Nigerian Islamist group Boko Haram has threatened to sell the hundreds of school girls it kidnapped three weeks ago.

In a video message Abubakar Shekau admitted Boko Haram had abducted the girls from a boarding school in Chibok.

Around 230 pupils aged between 16 to 18 are missing.

Shekau said he was instructed by God to take the young women and that they should be married and not in school.

Boko Haram means 'Western education is sinful.'

Meanwhile, the families of the kidnapped are furious with the reaction to the abductions by the government of Goodluck Jonathan.

Martha Yarama Ndirpaya is the mother of a missing girl:

'The government told lies, about finding 121 girls, while after some time we discovered that it was a pure lie. They are not doing anything up till now.'

Relations between the families and the government are fraught. An activist was detained and later released seemingly on the orders of First Lady Patience Jonathan.

Jonathan allegedly accused the families of fabricating the kidnappings.