All is not well with Shekau - source claims

All is not well with Shekau - source claims

- Abubakar Shekau was conspicuously missing in Boko Haram new video on Wednesday, September 14

- Source claims he was nursing the fatal wound he recently sustained from the Nigerian Army, hence his absence

- Army claims the factional Boko Haram leader is indisposed

There are indications that Abubakar Shekau, the factional leader of Boko Haram, was clearly missing in the new video released by the insurgents’ group on Wednesday, September 14, because he was nursing the fatal wound he recently sustained.

According to a source, who has been following the insurgents’ video since 2014, Shekau might be ill, The Sun reports.

All is not well with Shekau - source claims
Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau

“From all indications and from my checks, the man is ill. He was not also in the audio released by the group in the first week of August. All is not well with him,” the source said.

READ ALSO: Shekau is dead - Nigerian Army

Also commenting on the observed absence of Shekau, the media coordinator of the counter-insurgency operation in the northeast, Operation Lafiya Dole, Air Commodore Dele Alonge said the video confirmed claims by the military that Shekau is indisposed.

He said: “For the past one month, how many of the Boko Haram terrorists have seen either the first Shekau, second or the person cloning him? We have said earlier and we maintained that Shekau or the man cloning him is fatally wounded from our troops’ bombardment. That was why he wasn’t in their video.”

He also said the video was “a mere propaganda device to sustain their terror act,” adding, “We won’t give them space.”

A new video released by Boko Haram last Wednesday showed a crowd of insurgents purportedly observing the Eid Kabir without their leader, Shekau, who the military claimed was fatally wounded during an air raid on August 19.

The insurgents in the video threatened to capture President Muhammadu Buhari.

All is not well with Shekau - source claims

The threat has left residents of Maiduguri warning the authorities and the military not to take the insurgents for granted. A religious leader who preferred anonymity urged the military not to view the threat as mere propaganda, noting that the terrorists group may have used the president’s name to divert the attention of the security to cause havoc somewhere.

“We shouldn’t treat the Boko Haram threat to capture the president alive as mere propaganda as the military want us believe. The threat should be taken seriously because of its implication. Boko Haram may be issuing the threat to direct the attention and energy of our security to the protection of the presidential villa and other senior government officials only to target vulnerable areas,” the cleric said.

Since his emergence in 2009, Shekau has been declared dead by the Nigerian Army on several occasions, though it has never been solidly confirmed.

Shekau took over as leader of Boko Haram after the founder, Mohammed Yusuf, was paraded and then executed in front of a crowd by Nigerian security forces.

The Boko Haram leader has been reported killed but manages to return with video clips to show he’s still alive. Under his leadership, Boko Haram has killed thousands of people and displaced more than 2 million.

Recently, report surfaced on Tuesday, Augusts 23, that Shekau was “fatally wounded” during an unprecedented and spectacular air raid.

 “Those Boko Haram terrorists commanders confirmed dead include Abubakar Mubi, Malam Nuhu and Malam Hamman, amongst others, while their leader, the so-called ‘Abubakar Shekau’, is believed to be fatally wounded on his shoulders. Several other terrorists were also wounded,” Sani Kukasheka Usman, spokesman of the army, had said.

Source: Legit.ng

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