The Defence Headquarters has reacted to a claim that the Boko Haram leader, Abubakar Shekau is alive. This was made known in a statement published on www.defenceinfo.mil.ng on Thursday.
A video was released on Thursday which showed Shekau claiming that he was alive. in the video, Shekau can be seen saying, “Here I am, alive.”
The DHQ said as far as it was concerned the person posing as Abubakar Shekau had been killed last week at Konduga.
“As far as we are concerned, the individual who was appearing in video and claiming to be the leader of the terrorist group was killed in the Kondunga battle in September. The resemblance of the corpse and that of the eccentric character was incontrovertible. His identity was equally corroborated by people who knew him before we announced his death.”
The DHQ in the statement emphasised that, “The Defence Headquarters is studying the claims made in the video purportedly released by the terrorists showing their leader Abubakar Shekau as dismissing his death. From immediate observation and what some online news outlets claimed to have seen, the video did not indicate when it was shot neither did it show any proof of life or currency such as screen time or date. The video also did not make any reference to anything that has happened since the impostor’s reported death.”
The DHQ insisted that the video might have been recorded before Shekau was reportedly killed, hence, the sect leader was able to make reference to a Nigerian military fighter jet that went missing in September. Shekau in the recently video boasted that his men shot down the jet.
“It is also noteworthy that the air plane said to be mentioned in the video had been missing before he was killed. It should not surprise anybody if the terrorists decide to manipulate pictures, clone another Shekau or upload a pre-recorded video all in a bid to prove invincible,” the DHQ said.
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