@nnamdianekwe: Why Abubakar Shekau is dead!

by Nnamdi Anekwe-Chive

On September 12, 2014, members of the 143 Infantry Special Forces Battalion, engaged the Boko Haram Terrorists in Konduga, during their fourth attempt at over running the town, a city that’s 40km from Maiduguri, Borno state capital. The terrorists suffered heavy casualties, including the death of a prominent commander who had been mimicking Abu Shekau in recent propaganda videos of the terror group. Both the villagers and the civilian joint task force agreed that the dead commander was the individual impersonating late Abu Shekau.

The Defence Headquarters, after proper technical intelligence analysis of past videos of the impostor and the corpse, released comparative pictures of the dead commander named Mohammed Bashir. Despite the evidence, the media is awash with reports on whether Abu Shekau is truly dead and also if the Mohammed Bashir is really the impostor.

Let’s examine last year’s military battle at the Sambisa forest.

On 19th of June, 2013, the Nigerian troops from the Joint Task Force, acting on highly classified intelligence raided the Sambisa forest, in an attempt to dislodge or kill the Boko Haram Terrorists and its leader, Abu Shekau,who set up a base in the jungle. The mission was largely a success, except for a tactical blunder and insufficient ammunitions which resulted in the death of a senior military officer, a Major and dozens of soldiers. They killed hundreds of the Boko Haram Terrorists, destroyed portions of the camp and wounded scores, including Abu Shekau who escaped with life threatening bullet wounds. He and his lieutenants managed to land in Amitchide, a border village in Cameroon territory where he was treated for few weeks before he died.

On 25th September, 2013, the Boko Haram Terrorists released a video with a  man purporting to be Abu Shekau denouncing the Nigerian government and the Western leaders. As soon as the video went viral, report has it that President Jonathan requested for a further confirmation of Abu Shekau’s death through the Office of the National Security Adviser. The NSA was reported to have set up an inter-agency intelligence panel comprising of the Department of State Services, the Directorate of Military Intelligence, the National Intelligence Agency, Defence Intelligence Agency and the Police, to verify once again the death of the Boko Haram leader.

The panel posited, based on crucial information from sources in Amitchide and captured senior Boko Haram Terrorist’s commanders that Abu Shekau died between late July and early August 2013, from the fatal injuries he sustained at the Sambisa Forest. The intelligence averred they couldn’t retrieve the body for DNA analysis as a result of terrain and some other complexities, but concluded in strong terms that the man claiming to be Shekau is an impostor in a highly contrived media propaganda, in conjunction with the terrorist group’s foreign computer technicians and specialists.

So the current attempt of the Boko Haram Terrorists to dispel the claim of the Nigerian military and dismiss the identity of Mohammed Bashir as Abu Shekau’s impostor is another grand propaganda strategy by the terror group. The Defence Headquarters has since released a statement reiterating that the video is fake and highly doctored, and recently, arrested a foreign Boko Haram member who specializes in uploading their YouTube videos and other information communication technology propaganda.

The Boko Haram Terrorists are masters of media propaganda. Two years ago, they used a certain name Abu Qaqa as their spokesman. Abu Qaqa was a name used by various individuals in the group to disseminate their message to the media and he was the defacto face of the Boko Haram Terrorists. The Nigerian security forces eliminated Abu Qaqa thrice before the terror group switched to the Abu Shekau brand. The military had maintained at the time that Abu Qaqa was simply a title used by the insurgents as their spokesman so that even if the forces kill one, another will emerge thereby making it difficult to ascertain the identity of the true spokesman. Such is the case with Abu Shekau.

The Defence Headquarters, in a strongly worded statement concluded that “since the name of Abu Shekau has become a brand for the terrorist leader, the Nigerian Military remains resolute to serve justice to anyone who assumes that designation or title”

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Nnamdi Anewke-Chive is a national security analyst.

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