Ahmed Salkida, a Dubai-based Nigerian journalist who reportedly maintains communication with some leaders of the Islamist insurgent group Boko Haram, claimes that the sect’s leader, Abubakar Shekau, is alive and well. Mr. Salkida denied reports asserting that Nigerian troops had killed the mercurial and fiendish Shekau, the speaker and voice in numerous videos released by Boko Haram.
Ahmed Salkida, in a tweet also dismissed media reports that the Nigerian government was negotiating with Boko Haram for the release of more than 200 schoolgirls kidnapped in mid-April by Boko Haram militants in Chibok, Borno State. The reporter’s tweet also described as untrue reports that the International Red Cross (IRC) was working on a deal that would persuade Boko Haram to free the abducted Chibok schoolgirls in exchange for the release of detained Islamist insurgents in the custody of Nigerian security agencies.
SaharaReporters had earlier published a report to the effect that a Nigerian intelligence source revealed that the person whose dead body is seen in photos circulating in news reports was not Shekau but one “Mohammed Bashir”.
An ntelligence source stated that the dead Islamist figure, who bore a striking semblance to Mr. Shekau, was indeed a look-alike who appeared in videos released by the Islamist sect.
Mr. Salkida’s tweet appeared to confirm that the Boko Haram “officer” killed by Nigerian soldiers in Konduga was a different person from Mr. Shekau. In fact, Nigerian security officials have maintained for months that Mr. Shekau was dead, apparently killed by his own disaffected lieutenants in an internal rivalry for control of the terrorist organization.
However, Salkida sent out another tweet today which appeared to cast doubt on the fact that Shekau indeed had a double.
A confidential debriefing document by the Nigerian army obtained last week also acknowledged that Mr. Shekau stayed permanently in his holdout in Sambisa Forest and was not in the habit of venturing out to battles. Item “R” of the document stated, ”Shekau has his wife and 2 children in Sambisa Forest. He is Kanuri, he speaks Hausa and he does not travel.”
Meanwhile, a Nigerian security source told SaharaReporters that there was evidence of a growing frustration among insurgent fighters and a simmering power struggle between some of the sect’s top figures. He disclosed that some of the insurgents who surrendered to Nigerian troops last week in Konduga have told army interrogators that they decided to give up after their commander executed two of their leaders who led the failed attack on Konduga. The source told SaharaReporters that the insurgents, who are being kept in one of the barracks in Maiduguri, told interrogators that they fled from a camp near Bama after their commander shot dead two insurgent field officers “for losing valuable weapons to infidels.” He added that the surrendering militants claimed they were reluctant and small-time fighters who were recently recruited from towns and villagers taken by Boko Haram.
The insurgents’ foiled attempt to seize Konduga, which was a first step in their plan to attack the Borno State capital, Maiduguri, is being seen as a possible turning point in the war between the insurgents and increasingly confident Nigerian soldiers. Nigerian troops killed hundreds of insurgents in the battle for Konduga and also seized an armored tank and several vehicles from the Boko Haram fighters. Incidentally, Boko Haram insurgents had originally captured the tank and vehicles from the Nigerian army in previous battles.
For close to two weeks, the insurgents have not been able to reproduce their earlier streak of victories over Nigerian troops. Instead, they have been routed in Konduga and driven out of Baza in Adamawa State.
- SR
Operatives of Peace on Campus Initiative (PCI), University of Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, on Monday, uncovered two improvised explosive devices in male hostel of the institution.
The operatives also arrested a diploma student of the institution, Mr Kufre Anwana, following the discovery.
Nigerian Tribune gathered that two improvised explosive devices, widely speculated as hand grenades, were found in a bag belonging to the suspect by some students, who alerted the operatives of the PCI.
National Coordinator, PCI, Mr Oliver Cromwell, told newsmen that his men in the UNIUYO chapter got information that the suspect was keeping explosive devices in his bag, while they trail him to his room in the hostel.
According to Cromwell, on discovering the devices, which was well packaged in a bag, the operatives apprehended the suspect and invited anti-bomb squad formation of the Akwa Ibom State police command, Ikot Akpan Abia, to the scene for verification and possible diffusion.
He stated that the squad detonated the two improved explosive devices, while it also conducted a search round the other hostel rooms.
“Anti-Bomb Squad was invited to come and ascertain if the explosives were real. When they came, they confirmed that those things were hand grenades and were locally made,” an eyewitness and student of the institution, who gave his name as Inyang, told the Nigerian Tribune.
Inyang stated that Anwana was not in the hostel at the time the explosives were uncovered, but was apprehended and interrogated when he returned.
It was, however, gathered that during interrogation, the suspect confessed to keeping the explosives, but dismissed that he actually bought or made them with intent to disrupting academic activities.
According to him, he stumbled on the explosive devices on the school premises, saying he was planning to hand them over to the security.
“It all started on Friday when I was coming back from the church. Just close to where the construction is going on, I saw two white things on the ground. When I picked them, I saw the inscription ‘hand grenade’,” he said.
The state Police Public Relations Officer, Mr Etim Dickson, confirmed the incident, saying that the explosives were homemade devices, which could have been invented by any of the science students in the university.
He added that the police would get to the root of the matter.
The police spokesman urged students and parents not to entertain any fear about possible breakdown of law and order in the university community.
“The incident had been properly taken care of. We are on top of the situation. We shall get to the root of the mater,” Dickson, speaking with the Nigerian Tribune in a telephone conversation, maintained.
- Tribune
Sequel to relentless onslaught by troops, many members of the Boko Haram terrorists group are beginning to surrender voluntarily. Some of them submitted themselves and their weapons to the leadership of the troops in Konduga during a further campaign at the weekend.
The Defence Headquarters has tweeted that "as the heat on the terrorists continues, five terrorists surrendered on Saturday (September 20, 2014) with all their weapons to troops at Konduga, pleading for mercy."
Other captured terrorists who refused to surrender have also been giving useful information on the subsequent plans of the group in an apparent offer to cooperate.
In the last few days there have been several attempts by terrorists desperate to gain entry to Konduga, which the Nigerian troops, have continued to foil.
The PRNigeria gathered that the terrorists’ move was aimed at recovering the bodies of their prominent fighters who had died in the previous encounters in the area.
Meanwhile the Nigerian troops have recovered more weapons during the mopped up operations while some of their (terrorists') vehicles have been destroyed.
- PRNigeria
Nigerian troops might have scored a strategic victory in the current battle against terrorists operating in the North East on September 17. During a desperate attempt to capture Konduga in their delusion to eventually marching on and capturing Maiduguri, the man who had been mimicking Late Abubakar Shekau in recent videos might have been finally killed.
According to senior military and intelligence sources, "it is getting more certain that the terrorists' commander who has been mimicking Shekau in those videos is the one killed in Konduga on September 17, 2014."
The PRNigeria sources said the suspected demise of the Boko Haram leader is responsible for the scattering of the sect members in different independent locations in the neighbouring countries, especially in Cameroon noticed in recent days.
The security sources did not deny the suspicion but cautioned that "the process of confirming that the dead body we have is the same as that character who has been posing as Shekau is ongoing. He is definitely a prominent terrorist commander. I don't want to say anything about this yet please."
Another high ranking military source insisted that the resemblance is too striking to be a coincidence. They cited his facial marks, beards and teeth apart from the recovery by the Nigerian troops of some of the Armoured Vehicles and Hilux jeeps that had featured in previous videos of the prime suspect.
The officers assured that the Defence Headquarters will soon address the nation after full investigation of their latest discovery.
- SR
