{"id":358207,"date":"2021-05-29T09:41:58","date_gmt":"2021-05-29T08:41:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/?p=358207"},"modified":"2021-05-29T09:42:02","modified_gmt":"2021-05-29T08:42:02","slug":"one-week-after-boko-haram-silent-over-death-of-its-leader-abubakar-shekau","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/?p=358207","title":{"rendered":"One week after, Boko Haram silent over death of its leader, Abubakar Shekau"},"content":{"rendered":"
Abubakar Shekau, a fearless leader of the dreaded Islamic sect, Boko Haram may have finally been killed.
\nShekau, before the latest news about his death, had died, at least twice.
\nRecall that in 2009, the Nigerian security forces told the world that they have killed Shekau, the same time Mohammed Yusuf, founder of Boko Haram was killed in police custody.
\nSubsequently, there had been regular reports that the security forces had killed Shekau including a claim on September 21, by the Cameroonian authorities that they had killed the terrorists leader in a shoot-out, a claim that proved not to be the case.
\nIn each of these claims, however, \u2018Shekau\u2019 had issued a video in order to prove he was still alive.
\nBoko Haram began its violent campaign in 2009 following the killing of its spiritual leader, Mohammad Yusuf.
\nIn 2015, Shekau pledged allegiance to Islamic State (IS), which renamed Boko Haram as the Islamic State in West Africa Province (ISWAP).
\nIt was Abu Mus\u2019ab al-Barnawi, a former Spokesman for Boko Haram, that coordinated the change which Shekau was not comfortable with.
\nShekau feared al-Barnawi could leverage his closer relationship with IS to push him out of the organisation.
\nHis suspicion turned out true because in August 2016, IS designated al-Barnawi as the leader of ISWAP.
\nShekau left to lead his own splinter group and accused al-Barnawi of being a \u201cpolytheist\u201c. Since then, the splinter groups have become rivals.
\nJust last week, ISWAP\u2019s commander, Dana Daguri led his fighters in a deadly attack on Shekau and his Jama\u2019tu Ahlis Sunna Lidda\u2019awati wal-Jihad (JAS), faction, leading to what has turned out to be his(Shekau) \u201cfinal death.\u201d
\nBana Duguri and his men had stormed the Sambisa hideout of Boko Haram and Shekau was said to have bombed himself to avoid being captured alive.
\nCompared to past news of his death, Shekau has remained silent. No video nor statement has been released to further justify that he survived the said attack on him and his fighters.
\nThis has further strengthened the belief in Nigeria and other neighbouring countries that Shekau is gone finally. Like Shekau, his Boko Haram faction have remain silent about the news and up till now, no videos making any further clarification from his group has been released.
\nIntelligence agencies in Nigeria, the Nigeria Defence Headquarters and other security bodies have all confirmed the demise of the fearless terrorist for over one week now, but no response from Shekau or his men.
\nThe army is yet to officially state its position on the alleged killing of the terrorist leader.
\nBut residents of Maiduguri, the Borno State capital have expressed doubts over the alleged killing of Boko Haram leader, saying they would need proof of facts regarding the claims that Shekau was actually killed or killed himself with others during a clash with Islamic State of West African Province, ISWAP as being reported.
\nAccording to residents who spoke with DAILY POST in Maiduguri, Shekau had remained a ghost as he had been reported killed several times.
\n\u201cSoldiers had claimed they killed Shekau, they even showed his picture tied to a tree when he was captured in Konduga and subsequently killed. But days later, Shekau was alive and healthy. He even went ahead to attack and sack many villages, made videos about it and warned those claiming to have killed him. Now the story is coming back again just as it was told before. My take is that proof is what we need to believe because we have since become doubting Thomases here.\u201d Laletu Usman, a resident of Bullumkuttu in Maiduguri told DAILY POST.
\n\u201cBoko Haram Spiritual Leader, Abubakar Ibn Al-Shakawi also known as Shekau is dead. Perhaps this is the sixth time he will be pronounced dead only to resurface again. He was killed in Dikwa, Bama, Kukawa, Marte, Damboa, Konduga and the latest about him was that he killed himself and others when he chose to become a human bomb. For me, these are stories. We need proofs\u201d Mohammed Sani said.
\n(Daily Post)<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Abubakar Shekau, a fearless leader of the dreaded Islamic sect, Boko Haram may have finally been killed. Shekau, before the latest news about his death, had died, at least twice. Recall that in 2009, the Nigerian security forces told the world that they have killed Shekau, the same time Mohammed Yusuf, founder of Boko Haram […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":358208,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[37,40,12205],"class_list":["post-358207","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-more","tag-boko-haram","tag-borno","tag-shekau"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358207","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=358207"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358207\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/358208"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=358207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=358207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=358207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}