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Speculations Mount Over Whereabouts of Shekau – Dead, Alive, Escaped ?

Published

10 years ago

April 23, 2015

The last that was heard of Shekau was the unverified broadcast pledging allegiance to Islamic State (IS), early in March which was posted on Boko Haram’s Twitter account. In that broadcast he also vowed to disrupt the rescheduled elections.
With peace and quiet from the usually vociferous Abubakar Shekau, supreme head of the Boko Haram in recent times, there are speculations within the security circles that the group may have been so disarrayed that it no longer has the luxury of issuing threats.
A military source told PRNigeria that since the declaration of the final push against the insurgents in the middle of February, and directive to clear all terrorists’ camps before May 29 handover date, the Nigerian troops have been on the lookout for Shekau and other commanders of Boko Haram.
“The guy simply disappeared from the radar and suddenly vanished. We wish we can catch him alive,” the source added.
The last that was heard of Shekau was the unverified broadcast pledging allegiance to Islamic State (IS), early in March which was posted on Boko Haram’s Twitter account. In that broadcast he also vowed to disrupt the rescheduled elections.
Shekau was quoted to have said: “This election will not be held even if we are dead. Even if we are not alive Allah will never allow you to do it.” He made the statement in Hausa language.
Despite the threats however, the group was unable to disrupt the 2015 general elections as polls were conducted reasonably peacefully throughout the country on March 28 and April 11.
Since asking for a six week extension to the date of 2015 general elections in February, Nigerian troops have essentially flushed out boko haram terrorists from the 21 local government areas that they occupied in three states of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe.
The military has invaded the notorious forest hideouts of terrorists and is systematically combing them to clear the entire Nigerian territory of terrorist elements.
On Wednesday, Defence Headquarters issued a statement detailing the killing of a notorious top terrorists’ commander, Abu Mojahid among scores of others in the outskirt of Alagarno on Tuesday morning.