leader
of the Boko Haram sect who the
police said they killed in Maiduguri
during last year's clashes has re-
emerged in a new video clip,
saying he has assumed command
of the group and would continue to
propagate its anti-Western
education ideology.
Imam Abubakar Shekau was the
second-in-command to Mohammed
Yusuf, who was killed by the police
in July last year after days of
fighting between security forces
and the sect's followers. The police
said last year that Shekau was shot
dead in the clashes.
But a 25-minute video clip, shot on
April 19 and obtained by Daily Trust
in Abuja during the week, showed
Shekau answering questions from a
journalist at his hideout believed to
be in Maiduguri.
In the clip, Shekau is seen wearing
a head dress, with an AK-47 gun
and a stack of religious books
behind him. People who know
Shekau very well identified him in
a still image captured from the
video clip.
Proclaiming himself as leader of the
sect, Shekau said during the
interview that with the death of
the former leader, he "being the
deputy (to Yusuf), stepped in and
assumed leadership to continue in
the pursuit of religious knowledge."
However, the police in Maiduguri
insisted on Tuesday that Shekau is
dead.
Borno State Commissioner of Police
Ibrahim Abdu told our reporter that
information available to the police
indicated that both leaders of the
sect -Yusuf and Shekau -have been
killed.
"I have not seen the clip and I
cannot comment on what I have
not seen. (But) to the best of my
knowledge, Shekau and
Mohammed Yusuf are dead. If
anybody can identify them and tell
us their location, we are ready to
act. But to us they are dead, if they
are alive, they are wanted
persons," Abdu said.
There had been no conclusive
evidence of the claim that Shekau
was killed in the Boko Haram
clashes, unlike the case of
Mohammed Yusuf, whose death
was confirmed because of the wide
circulation of the photo of his dead
body.
Initial speculations were that
Shekau was killed at the sect's Ibn
Taimiyya enclave, when soldiers
engaged the members in a gun
battle on the second day of the
clashes. But there were rumours
later that the second-in-command
had escaped out of the state.
Asked to explain how he survived
the onslaught by security forces
during the 4-day clashes, Shekau
said in the video clip that he was
shot in the thigh but was rescued
by "fellow believers and protected
by Allah."
He argued that his men were not
the first to attack security agencies,
but that they retaliated in self
defence after they were hit. He
claimed that during the Boko
Haram clashes, only a few of his
men were killed and that the major
casualties were mere passersby,
mad people and young hawkers.
Shekau vowed to retaliate for the
killings of his followers in Maiduguri
and other places.
Asked why they use guns even
though the guns were also products
of Western education, he said,
"Guns are not products of boko,
we also can make guns, we even
made and used guns."
On where his sect gets weaponry,
Shekau said, "We get them from
where we get them. God said we
should get them (weapons), the
Holy Prophet said we should get
them."
He insisted that the pursuit of
Western education is prohibited,
and that his group would continue
to propagate the Boko Haram
ideology.
"What we are saying is that it is not
permissible to seek for boko
(Western education) under the
prevailing system and given the
un-Islamic things introduced in
boko," he said.
"We are not fighting Western
education itself, what we are
opposed to are the various un-
Islamic things slotted into it and the
system upon which the study of
Western education is rested. These
are the reasons why we say it's not
permissible to study it."
The video clip was shot by a
journalist, who told Daily Trust that
he sought to interview Shekau
through some followers in
Maiduguri. They then arranged and
picked him up at night on April 19
at a location within the city,
blindfolded and drove him to a
hideout.
The journalist said the place should
be in Maiduguri because the drive
took just about an hour and did not
feel like a movement out of the
city. He said he was taken into a
house and to a pre-set stage for
the interview in a room. He also
said Shekau had armed guards with
him.
Shekau was, besides being a
second-in-command of the sect, the
most influential and feared
member of the Boko Haram group.