LAGOS: Is he alive or isn’t he? Fresh claims have emerged in Nigeria that Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau, or at least someone impersonating him, may be dead — and not for the first time.
Rumours have been flying since last Thursday when the military tweeted that “a seriously wounded high ranking terrorist leader” had been captured during clashes in Konduga, Borno state, in the country’s strife-torn northeast.
The unnamed militant was wounded and said to have been treated at a military medical facility, top brass said, as they trumpeted their apparent success over the insurgents.
Speculation moved into overdrive at the weekend when a photograph began circulating of a heavily bearded man said to have been killed in Konduga and talk of an imminent government announcement.
“At this point, I will not be able to confirm or deny the information,” army spokesman General Olajide Olaleye told AFP yesterday. “Investigation is ongoing. “(Defence spokesman) Major General Chris Olukolade will be able to throw more light on the issue very, very soon. Be on the watchout,” he added.
But with two previous public statements about Shekau’s death, the military has some potentially tricky explaining to do.
Police in the city of Maiduguri said on July 30, 2009 that Shekau — then deputy to Boko Haram founder Mohammed Yusuf — was one of about 200 members of the group killed during clashes.
But he then appeared less than a year later in video clips.
The security taskforce in northeast Nigeria on August 19 last year issued a statement saying Shekau “may have died” from a gunshot wound after a clash with soldiers on June 30.
Several weeks later, another video emerged. “Here is Shekau, Shekau, Shekau, Shekau, original... I want the whole world to know that I’m alive by the grace of Allah,” a bearded man in combat fatigues and sporting a military assault rifle says.
There have been 10 Boko Haram videos since last September, the latest of them on August 24, when “Shekau” proclaimed the captured Borno town of Gwoza as part of an Islamic caliphate. The military high command in Abuja has never confirmed the claims about Shekau’s death.
Some claim that he actually died in 2003 and his name has been used since by at least two others. AFP
