The
Nigerian Army has described the embattled leader of Boko Haram,
Abubakar Shekau, as mentally ill following the release of the latest
video in which the terror group leader denied claims made by the army
that he was seriously injured.
“The video has shown beyond all
reasonable doubt the earlier suspicion that the purported factional
terrorist group leader is mentally sick and unstable,” the spokesman for
the Nigerian Army, Sani Usman, said in a statement on Sunday.
“The ranting is also another sign that the end is near for him which is part of the signs of all wicked people.”
Usman insisted that Shekau was indeed
wounded in an air strike in August and the troops in the northeast were
doing enough to check the activities of the terror group.
Nigerian authorities have reported him
dead several times before, but the army’s latest claim was bolstered
when Boko Haram — which pledged allegiance last year to the Islamic
State (IS) group — released a video on September 13 without Shekau in
it.
However, in the video released Sunday, Shekau points to a date on an Islamic calendar corresponding to September 25, 2016.
Speaking in Hausa, Arabic and English and in dialects spoken in northeast Nigeria, he appears to be in good physical health.
He uses the video to issue threats
against President Muhammadu Buhari, who appealed to the United Nations
this week for help in negotiating the release of the Chibok schoolgirls
kidnapped by the militants more than two years ago.
“If you want your girls, bring back our brethren,” Shekau said.
But Usman said Nigerian Army was intent
on clearing “the remnants of the terrorists and rescue all persons held
hostage by them especially the abducted Chibok Secondary School girls.”
Post a Comment