The Nigeria’s army said Thursday it was trying to verify the authenticity of a video that appeared to show Boko Haram’s leader mocking reports that he may have been killed.
A security task force last month said wanted Islamist insurgent commander Abubakar Shekau “may have died” from a gunshot wound after a clash with soldiers on June 30.
In a video seen by AFP Wednesday, a man resembling past images of Shekau taunted the regional military spokesman who suggested he had been killed.
“We cannot say at this juncture whether the claim is true or false until we authenticate the veracity of the video,” army spokesman Ibrahim Attahiru told AFP.
“The army authorities have to verify the claim. This is precisely what we are doing,” he said.
The initial statement concerning Shekau’s possible death came from a military spokesman based in the northeast, Boko Haram’s stronghold.
National defence spokesman Chris Olukolade has told AFP that statement may have been issued prematurely and that the military lacked definitive proof of Shekau’s death.
Shekau has been declared a global terrorist by the United States, which put a $7 million bounty (5.2 million euros) on his head.
He leads an Islamist group which has been blamed for scores of deadly attacks across northern and central Nigeria.
It was not clear when or where the latest video was recorded, but in it Shekau claims recent attacks in the northeast.
“I want the whole world to know that I’m alive by the grace of Allah,” he says in the Hausa language.
Boko Haram has said its four-year insurgency is aimed at creating an Islamic state in Nigeria’s mainly Muslim north.
Nigeria in mid-May imposed a state of emergency across most of the restive northeast and launched an ongoing offensive aimed at crushing the insurgency.
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I said it then and I will say it again. Story without proof is fake. He has spoken and they are running around. A shame.
ReplyDeletedon't mind them.
ReplyDeletewell BH killing is not good, Quran dont says kill.
Qur'an and Bible dont teach both Muslim & Christian to kill.
1 of our problem is that we dont understand those books, or we dont read them well or we dont read from beginning, we need to know true history behind those verses of the books.
some quotes from some sites are trash, false (rubbish), like this site http://www.answering-islam.org/Terrorism/islam_and_violence.html many quotes of some books in that site are far away from truth, not in history of Islam.
Yoruba says: eni to ba fe je ogun kogun yio pa itan kitan (whosoever what to archive something by must, will find a way for it by must, either true or false)
dont create enemy between Muslim and Christian.
i know there is a secret behind BH, Government and western world (US)
We pray to God to save us from their hand. Amin
you could not verify who you killed physically na video una wan verify. shame on Nigerian Military. if you killed Shekau why verify video? bring out the picture of the thing you killed to counter the video. Zombie. Fela for yab una again now if to say em dey alive.
ReplyDeleteshekau,you have killed by sword and you will die a miserable death by sword.those people you've killed are crying for vengeance over you and you cant escape it.weather you dead now or not i know that your death will be so terrible.bastard BH.PEOPLE ARE LIVING IN THIS WORLD to do meaningful things but you have chosen destructive part and that is your portion.
ReplyDelete