The Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen. Tukur Buratai has issued an order to Maj.-Gen. Ibrahim Attahiru, the Theatre Commander, Operation Lafiya Dole, Maiduguri, to ensure capture of Abubakar Shekau, self-acclaimed leader of the Boko Haram sect, “dead or alive” within 40 days.
A statement issued by Brig.-Gen. Sani Usman, the Director, Army Public Relations, on Friday night, stated that Attahiru should “employ all arsenal at the disposal of the Theatre Command to smoke out Shekau wherever he is hiding in Nigeria.”
“The generality of Nigerians are kindly obliged to also assist and volunteer information that would lead to the accomplishment of this task,” Usman said.
Earlier reports that the terrorists’ leader had been killed in different operations have been rebuffed as he continually makes public audio and video clips on the sects’ activities.
Shekau, Kanuri by tribe, assumed leadership of Boko Haram when the founding father of sect, Mohammed Yusuf was killed in 2009.
He was first reported killed in 2009 but reappeared as the group’s leader less than a year later.
The army in mid-August 2013 stated that he was fatally wounded when soldiers laid siege on a base of Boko Haram in Sambisa forest, Borno and had died between 25 July and 3 August.
Consequently, a video was released in September 2013, in which a man purported to be Shekau claimed he had not been killed.
The military also claimed to have killed him during the 2014 Battle of Kodunga that lasted from September 12 to 14th.
Nigerian government officials had also said that the original Shekau was long dead, but impostors keep popping up to perpetuate the myth that Shekau is unbeatable. (NAN)
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