We’ve ‘Never’ Declared Abubakar Shekau Dead, Nigeria Army Says

The Nigeria Army has said they have never declared that Boko Haram terrorist leader, Abubakar Shekau has been killed.

The Army in a statement by its spokesman Brigadier General Sani Usman revealed this in Buniyadi, Yobe state, after an interactive session between Chief of Army Staff, Tukur Buratai and troops of the 27th Taskforce on Thursday.

Buniyadi is one of the frontline operational base center in the prosecution of the Boko Haram terrorists’ war in the north east.

Usman however said the Army is looking to kill a man parading himself as Boko Haram leader on the social media and claiming responsibility for attacks carried out by the terrorist group.

The Spokesman further reiterated the Army’s determination to kill or capture Abubakar Shekau on or before the expiration of the 40 day ultimatum earlier given.

“From July 2014 to date nobody especially on the part of the Nigeria Army has ever said Shekau was dead,” he said.

“And If you are following things carefully, there is an individual that is coming up on the social media to claim responsibility and leadership of Boko Haram, that is the person we are talking about.

“If you are in possession of our wanted terrorists’ poster, you would have known that is the person we are talking about and we are so determine to meet up with that deadline to either kill him or capture him.

“The clearance operation of the remnants of these criminals that calls themselves Boko Haram will be decisively dealt with to a logical conclusion,” the director of Army Public relations said.

The military forces have claimed on at least three occasions to have killed Shekau, only for someone purporting to be the enigmatic jihadi to reappear in audio or video clips, denouncing the claims.

In 2009, security forces claimed to have killed Shekau, but a video later proclaimed him as Boko Haram’s new leader less than a year later. In August 2013, the military said it may have killed Shekau in a shootout in the Sambisa Forest, in early October 2014, a video was obtained by AFP news agency that showed Shekau alive, in which he mocked the Nigerian military’s allegations that he had been killed.

Again, in August 2016, the Nigerian army said it had “fatally wounded” Shekau in an airstrike, however, a September 2016 video showed the purported Shekau claiming he was in “a happy state, in good health and in safety.”

President of Chad Idriss Déby claimed in mid-August 2015 that Shekau had been replaced by Mahamat Daoud. An audio message attributed to Shekau was released a few days later, in which he purportedly stated that he had neither been killed nor ousted as chief of the group.

In 2014, the military claimed that one Mohammed Bashir, who had been acting or posing in videos as the deceased Abubakar Shekau, was killed in a counter-terrorism operation in the north-east.

The Nigerian military remains resolute to serve justice to anyone who assumes that designation or title.”

Buratai on July 22, gave the Theatre Commander, Operation Lafiya Dole, Major General Ibrahim Attahiru, 40 days to capture Shekau, dead or alive.