The Nigerian military has dismissed the new video purportedly released by “Abubakar Shekau” where he tried to debunk his killing during a battle in Konduga on September 17.
The Defence Headquarters (DHQ) in statement posted on its blog defenceinfo.mil.ng insists that the Shekau impostor Bashir Mohammed was as a matter of fact killed last month, an evidence that as corroborated by still photographs, video, the surrendering and as well captured terrorists.
The DHQ in a report titled: “The Purported Shekau Video in Circulation, said that its ” studying the claims made in the video purportedly released by the terrorists showing their leader Abubakar Shekau as dismissing his death.
According to the military authorities, from immediate observation and what some online news outlets claimed to have seen, the video did not indicate when it was shot neither did it show any proof of life or currency such as screen time or date.
It noted that the video also did not make any reference to anything that has happened since the impostor’s reported death.
The statement further read: “It is also noteworthy that the air plane said to be mentioned in the video had been missing before he was killed. It should not surprise anybody if the terrorists decide to manipulate pictures, clone another Shekau or upload a pre-recorded video all in a bid to prove invincible.
“As far as we are concerned, the individual who was appearing in video and claiming to be the leader of the terrorist group was killed in the Kondunga battle in September”.
“The resemblance of the corpse and that of the eccentric character was incontrovertible. His identity was equally corroborated by people who knew him before we announced his death.”
While still conducting thorough investigation into the new claims in the purported video, the military promised that justice will be served to whoever bears that name or designation and whoever engages in act.
Meanwhile, military authorities have voiced out over what they feel is growing Western conspiracy and gang-up against the military using foriegn media to malign the Nigerian Armed Forces and Security system while magnifying the actions of Boko Haram and Camerounian Forces.
“We are not comfortable with the propensity of some news media especially foreign based ones to fall for the antics of Boko Haram propaganda.
“You can see that no matter what some people, especially the foriegn elements and their local partners here are bent on tarnishing the country’s image and our military. Can you imagine that in view of all the glaring evidences shown in still and video photographs coupled with oral testimonies of surrendering and captured terrorists, some media outfits still help in the spread of propaganda that impostor is still alive”, a top military source said .
It could be recalled that an AFP report yesterday morning released a new video where the “Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau dismissed Nigerian military claims of his death and that the militants had implemented strict Islamic law in captured towns”.
“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.
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.
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.
There have been two previous claims by Nigeria’s security forces that Shekau was dead — once in 2009 during unrest in Maiduguri — and again in 2013.
Following each previous claim Boko Haram has issued denials in video messages.
Elsewhere in the new video, the militant leader said the group 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 said.
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.
