The leader of the Boko Haram sect, Abubakar Shekau has dismissed claims that he was killed last week in Konduga, Bornu State, by the Nigerian Military.
In a new video obtained by AFP on Thursday, Shekau dismissed Nigerian military claims of his death and said the militants had implemented strict Islamic law in captured towns.
The spokesman for the Defence Headquarters, Maj. Gen. Chris Olukolade had claimed late in September that Abubakar Shekau had been killed last year and his impostor, a man, known as Mohammed Bashir who also used other names like Abacha Abdullahi Geidam and Isa Damasack was killed in a fierce gun battle in Konduga.
While the Nigerian military was claiming the glory of ‘killing’ Shekau, its Cameroonian counterpart alleged that its officials were the ones who shot and killed Shekau. Both claims were, however, questioned by security experts. Ahmed Salkida who had had contact with Abubakar Shekau said last week on his Twitter account that he was in possession of a reliable information that Abubakar Shekau was not dead.
In the new video, Shekau boasted of his invincibility. “Here I am, alive. I will only die the day Allah takes my breath,” he said in the 36-minute video, adding that his group was “running our… Islamic caliphate” and administering sharia punishments.
“Nothing will kill me until my days are over… I’m still alive. Some people asked you if Shekau has two souls. No, I have one soul, by Allah,” he said, apparently reading from a script.
There was no indication of where or when the video was shot.
The heavily bearded Shekau, who appeared to be the same as those in previous clips, said the military’s claim that he was dead was propaganda.
“It is propaganda that is prevalent. I have one soul. I’m an Islamic student. “I’m the Islamic student whose seminary you burnt… I’m not dead,” he added, apparently referring to the destruction of the group’s mosque in the Borno state capital, Maiduguri, in 2009.
There have been two previous claims by Nigeria’s security forces that Shekau was dead — once in 2009 during unrest in Maiduguri — and again in 2013. Following each previous claim Boko Haram has issued denials in video messages.
Elsewhere in the new video, the militant leader said the group had implemented strict Islamic law in the towns that it had captured in recent weeks.
“We are running our caliphate, our Islamic caliphate. We follow the Koran… We now practise the injunctions of the Koran in the land of Allah,” he said.
The group also claimed to have shot down a Nigerian air force jet that went missing nearly three weeks ago.
An air force spokesman said the jet was missing.
“For any group to claim they shot it down is mere propaganda and rubbish,” Air Commodore Dele Alonge said.
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