{"id":2307,"date":"2014-10-03T14:52:25","date_gmt":"2014-10-03T14:52:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/?p=2307"},"modified":"2014-10-03T14:52:25","modified_gmt":"2014-10-03T14:52:25","slug":"im-alive-says-shekau-in-new-video","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/?p=2307","title":{"rendered":"I\u2019m alive, says Shekau in new video"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"I'm<\/a>
I’m alive, says Shekau in new video<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Click to watch video:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=daIPjo4m_2g<\/p>\n

The leader of Boko Haram, Abubakar Shekau, has described as \u201cpropaganda,\u201d the claim by the Defence Headquarters that he was killed early September in Kodunga, Borno State.<\/p>\n

Shekau, in a new video obtained by Agence-France-Presse<\/em> on Thursday, boasted that \u201cnothing could kill him\u201d until the day Allah stopped his breathing.<\/p>\n

He also claimed in the 36-minute video that Boko Haram fighters shot down the Nigerian Air Force fighter jet\u00a0\u00a0 which was reported missing three weeks ago by the Defence Headquarters.<\/p>\n

Last week, the Director of Defence Information, Maj. Gen. Chris Olukolade, told a news conference in Abuja that troops killed Shekau and that his corpse\u00a0\u00a0 was identified by the people of Kodunga.<\/p>\n

Olukolade illustrated his claim with pictures of the bullet-ridden corpse with Shekau\u2019s semblance and a video of the battle in which he was killed.<\/p>\n

He had also said that Shekau whose real name he gave as Mohammed Bashir\u00a0\u00a0 had\u00a0\u00a0 other names like Abacha Abdullahi Geidam and Damasack.<\/p>\n

A day before the DHQ claim, a\u00a0\u00a0 newspaper, quoting a military source, reported that Shekau was killed by Cameroonian soldiers during aerial bombardment of his hideout in Nigeria.<\/p>\n

The Cameroonian newspaper also printed pictures of a bullet-ridden corpse of a man it said was the Boko Haram leader.<\/p>\n

A former United States\u00a0\u00a0 Ambassador to Nigeria, John Campbell,\u00a0\u00a0 however questioned the credibility of the Nigerian military\u2019s claim.<\/p>\n

Campbell said, \u201cWho knows whether Shekau is alive or dead? The question may not matter much. As Boko Haram\u2019s resurrection after the killing of its genuinely charismatic leader, Mohammed Yusuf, shows, the movement is remarkably resilient, and not dependent on a single leader.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf Shekau is alive, as I suspect he is, evidence is scant as to what his actual role in the movement\u2019s leadership is. Boko Haram is more than Abubakar Shekau, alive or dead.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the new video,\u00a0\u00a0 Shekau is seen standing in front of three camouflaged vans and flanked by four heavily armed and masked fighters.<\/p>\n

He wore\u00a0\u00a0 combat fatigues and black rubber boots and firing an anti-aircraft gun into the air, Shekau spoke for about 16 minutes in Arabic and\u00a0\u00a0 Hausa languages widely spoken in most parts of northern Nigeria.<\/p>\n

But there was no indication of where or when the video was shot.<\/p>\n

Denouncing his killing by the military, the heavily bearded Boko Haram leader, who appeared to be the same as those in previous clips, said \u201cI hereby put to lie the claim that I was killed.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHere I am alive. I will only die the day Allah takes my breath,\u201d Shekau said amidst thunderous shout of Allahu Akbar \u201cAllah is great\u201d from his well-armed lieutenants.<\/p>\n

He consequently taunted the military, saying it had nothing to prove its claim.<\/p>\n

He said, \u201cI challenge you(military), I challenge you. You even said I was killed. If you kill me, does that mean you kill (the) religion? You are not honest. You have no proof, you have nothing to say.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Boko Haram leader boasted that the wish of President Goodluck Jonathan; President Barack Obama of the United States; Prime Minister Francois Hollande of France; Queen Elizabeth and the United Nations Secretary General, Ban-ki Moon, for his death would not materialise.<\/p>\n

He said, \u201cThe wish of Obama (United States President) will not kill me, the wish of Francois Hollande (of France) will not kill me, the wish of Benjamin Nattanyahu (of Israel) will not kill me, the wish of Ban-ki Moon(of the United Nations) will not kill me, the wish of Queen Elizabeth will not kill me, the wish of the infidels of the world will not kill me, much less of President (Goodluck Jonathan) , much less of Kashim (Shettima of Borno State ) , much less of Bra-Bra (Yobe State Governor Ibrahim Geidam).<\/p>\n

\u201cNothing will kill me until my days are over. Do whatever you want to do. If you think what I\u2019m doing is not the truth, even if you don\u2019t fight me I will crumble.<\/p>\n

\u201cNothing will kill me until my days are over\u2026 I\u2019m still alive. Some people asked\u00a0\u00a0 if Shekau has two souls. No, I have one soul, by Allah. It is propaganda that is prevalent. I have one soul.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shekau described himself as\u00a0\u00a0 an Islamic student whose seminary was burnt in 2009.<\/p>\n

He was apparently referring to the destruction of the group\u2019s mosque in Maiduguri,\u00a0\u00a0 Borno State\u00a0\u00a0 that year.<\/p>\n

Shekau also claimed that Boko Haram fighters shot down the NAF fighter jet which was on routine operational mission but did not return on September 12, 2014.<\/p>\n

A man the sect leader claimed was one of the two pilots aboard the plane was shown in the latest video stating that the jet was brought down by \u201cfighters of the Jama\u2019atu Ahlis Sunnah.\u201d<\/p>\n

The ruin of an aircraft with the insignia of the NAF was also shown.<\/p>\n

The pilot, who said he did not know the whereabouts of his colleague,\u00a0\u00a0 was thereafter decapitated with an axe by an executioner who dressed in (military) fatigues.<\/p>\n

In the video, Shekau said he had gone far in ensuring that Sharia was strictly observed in Boko Haram\u2019s \u201cIslamic Caliphate\u201d and showed footages in which a man \u201cconvicted of adultery\u201d was stoned to death.<\/p>\n

The right hand of another man accused of \u201cstealing\u201d was chopped off while an unmarried young man and a young lady \u201cconvicted of fornication\u201d were given 100 lashes each.<\/p>\n

But the DHQ however said it was studying the claims made in the new video.<\/p>\n

It said, \u201cFrom 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe video also did not make any reference to anything that has happened since the impostor\u2019s reported death.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt 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 decided to manipulate pictures, clone another Shekau or upload a pre-recorded video all in a bid to prove invincible.<\/p>\n

It further stated in a short statement on its official blog that as far as the military was concerned, the individual who\u00a0\u00a0 appeared in the latest\u00a0\u00a0 video\u00a0\u00a0 was killed in the Konduga battle in September.<\/p>\n

The DHQ argued that the resemblance of the corpse and that of the \u201ceccentric character was incontrovertible.\u201d<\/p>\n

It said, \u201cWhile waiting to see the new video before any further statement, our message to them (insurgents) is that justice will be served to whoever bears that name(Shekau) or designation(leader of Boko Haram).\u201d<\/p>\n

There had been two previous claims by Nigeria\u2019s security forces that Shekau was dead. The first was in 2009 during unrest in Maiduguri and again in 2013.<\/p>\n

Boko Haram had issued denials in video messages.<\/p>\n

A united Arab Emirates-based Nigerian journalist, Ahmad Salkida, has\u00a0\u00a0 said that it was \u201cwitless\u201d for the\u00a0\u00a0 military authorities \u201cto ascribe cosmetic science to Boko Haram that cannot even develop arms and ammunition instead depend mainly on looting the Nigerian Army armouries.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost of you are educated and as a country, we can\u2019t manufacture even toothpicks but some \u2018Almajiris\u2019 have suddenly become scientists before our watch.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tweeting on Thursday, Salkida, who is believed to have links with the insurgents, said, \u201cIf Boko Haram can perfect the art of cloning either through medical research or by way of photography then the entire world must be concerned. That means, they can perfectly mimic some leaders and have undue access? They can as well develop nuclear bombs and drones.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Click to watch video:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=daIPjo4m_2g The leader of Boko Haram, Abubakar Shekau, has described as \u201cpropaganda,\u201d the claim by the Defence Headquarters that he was killed early September in Kodunga, Borno State. Shekau, in a new video obtained by Agence-France-Presse on Thursday, boasted that \u201cnothing could kill him\u201d until the day Allah stopped his breathing. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2308,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2307","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/Im-alive-says-Shekau-in-new-video-360x225.jpg","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4oswh-Bd","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2307","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2307"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2307\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2309,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2307\/revisions\/2309"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2308"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2307"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2307"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2307"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}