Journalist Close To Boko Haram Says Abubakar Shekau “Alive And Well”

  

Ahmed Salkida, a Dubai-based Nigerian journalist who reportedly maintains communication with some leaders of the Islamist insurgent group Boko Haram, claimed today that the sect’s leader, Abubakar Shekau, is alive and well. Mr. Salkida denied reports asserting that Nigerian troops had killed the mercurial and fiendish Shekau, the speaker and voice in numerous videos released by Boko Haram.

In a tweet earlier today, Mr. Salkida also dismissed media reports that the Nigerian government was negotiating with Boko Haram for the release of more than 200 schoolgirls kidnapped in mid-April by Boko Haram militants in Chibok, Borno State. The reporter’s tweet also described as untrue reports that the International Red Cross (IRC) was working on a deal that would persuade Boko Haram to free the abducted Chibok schoolgirls in exchange for the release of detained Islamist insurgents in the custody of Nigerian security agencies.

Earlier today, SaharaReporters had published a report to the effect that a Nigerian intelligence source revealed that the person whose dead body is seen in photos circulating in news reports was not Shekau but one “Mohammed Bashir”.

Our intelligence source stated that the dead Islamist figure, who bore a striking semblance to Mr. Shekau, was indeed a look-alike who appeared in videos released by the Islamist sect.
Mr. Salkida’s tweet appeared to confirm that the Boko Haram “officer” killed by Nigerian soldiers in Konduga was a different person from Mr. Shekau. In fact, Nigerian security officials have maintained for months that Mr. Shekau was dead, apparently killed by his own disaffected lieutenants in an internal rivalry for control of the terrorist organization.

A confidential debriefing document by the Nigerian army obtained last week by SaharaReporters also acknowledged that Mr. Shekau stayed permanently in his holdout in Sambisa Forest and was not in the habit of venturing out to battles. Item “R” of the document stated, ”Shekau has his wife and 2 children in Sambisa Forest. He is Kanuri, he speaks Hausa and he does not travel.”