If the ongoing report from the troubled Northeast Nigeria is anything to go by, then a prominent Boko Haram Commander suspected to be the sect’s leader, Abubakar Shekau might have been killed. However, one report that appears conflicting is whether the alleged victory was actually won by the Nigerian Army or the Cameroonian soldiers.
The conflicting reports stemmed from the claim by troops of both countries of being responssible for the death of the most wanted terrorist in the North.
While troops from Cameroon on Sunday night claimed responsibility for killing Shekau with photos of the Boko Haram leader’s corpse as one of the proofs, the Nigerian Army has equally claimed that its troops killed the sect leader. The report from the side of the Nigerian troops was however not supported by images.
The conflict in the claim equally became visible when troops from Cameroon said it killed Shekau at the Gamboru Ngala border town, contrary to claims by the Nigerian Army that said Shekau was killed in Konduga town, few kilometres away from Maiduguri, the Borno state capital. Both troops also have different versions to how the terrorist was allegedly killed. While Cameroon military disclosed that Shekau was killed in an aerial bombardment in his hideout inside Nigeria, the Nigerian military claimed that its troops might have killed Shekau on September 17 when the sect members tried to capture Konduga, and consequently invade Maiduguri. The Nigerian Military has further claimed that “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 military however 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.”
A military source had further revealed that the semblance between Shekau and the corpse in their custody was too striking and cannot be a coincidence, citing his facial marks, beards and teeth in addition to 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 as possible evidences. The Army further assured that the Defence Headquarters will soon address the nation after full investigation is carried out to verify the real identity of the dead leader.
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