"I'm Alive" - Boko Haram Leader, Shekau Appears In New Video

The leader of Boko Haram, Abubakar Shekau has debunked claims by Nigeria Defence Headquarters that he was killed early September in Kodunga, Borno State. Shekau dismissed Nigerian military’s claims of his death in a new video obtained by Agence-France-Presse on Thursday and said the militants had implemented strict Islamic law in captured towns. He was seen firing weapons in the new video. “Here I am, alive. I will only die the day Allah takes my breath,” Shekau said, adding that his group was “running our Islamic caliphate” and administering strict Sharia punishments.

Last week, the Director of Defence Information, Maj. Gen. Chris Olukolade, said during a news conference in Abuja that the corpse of the insurgents’ leader was identified by the people of Kodunga. Olukolade illustrated the Defence authorities’ claim with pictures of the bullet-ridden corpse with Shekau’s semblance and a video of the battle in which he was killed.
He said that Shekau whose real name was Mohammed Bashir   had used other names like Abacha Abdullahi Geidam and Damasack.

Nigeria’s military said last week that Shekau was dead and that a man who had been posing as the group’s leader in the videos had been killed after fighting with troops in the far northeast. Security analysts and the United States questioned the credibility of the military’s claim.
According to a former US Ambassador to Nigeria, John Campbell, it is hard to believe Shekau was killed by Nigerian troops.

He said, “Who knows whether Shekau is alive or dead? The question may not matter much. As Boko Haram’s resurrection after the killing of its genuinely charismatic leader, Mohammed Yusuf, shows, the movement is remarkably resilient, and not dependent on a single leader. “If Shekau is alive, as I suspect he is, evidence is scant as to what his actual role in the movement’s leadership is. Boko Haram is more than Abubakar Shekau, alive or dead.”

The new 36-minute video showed Shekau, in combat fatigues and black rubber boots, standing on the back of a pick-up truck and firing an anti-aircraft gun into the air. Standing in front of three camouflaged vans and flanked by four heavily armed, masked fighters, he then speaks for 16 minutes in Arabic and the Hausa language widely spoken in northern Nigeria. 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.“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. “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.

Elsewhere in the new video, the terrorist group’s leader said the Boko Haram 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 added.

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 told AFP.

SOURCE : AFP