Conflicting reports trail killing of Boko Haram leader, Shekau by troops in Konduga Operation

Shekau, alive and dead

Cheering but unconfirmed report filtering in from military sources have it that Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau, may have been killed by troops during September 17 battle of Konduga, Borno State.

This was the anti-climax of the insurgents’ desperate attempt to capture Konduga in their delusion to eventually march on and capture Maiduguri.

Although, the process of verifying the true identity of the corpse is still ongoing by military authorities, but preliminary findings from the bodily features, etc, on the corpse under examination bear sharp resemblance with those found on the man that had been appearing in the various videos released by the insurgents.

This means that the military might have scored a strategic victory in the current battle against the terrorists operating in the North-east.

 According to senior military and intelligence sources, “it is getting more certain that the terrorists’ commander who has been mimicking Shekau in those videos is the one killed in Konduga on September 17, 2014.”

A reliable insider said the suspected demise of the Boko Haram leader is responsible for the scattering of the sect’s members in different independent locations in the neighbouring countries, especially in Cameroon, noticed in recent days.

 The security sources did not deny the suspicion but cautioned that “the process of confirming that the dead body we have is the same as that character who has been posing as Shekau is ongoing. He is definitely a prominent terrorist commander. I don’t want to say anything about this yet please.”

 Another high ranking military source insisted that the resemblance is too striking to be a coincidence. They cited his facial marks, beards and teeth apart from the recovery by the Nigerian troops of some of the Armoured Vehicles and Hilux jeeps that had featured in previous videos of the prime suspect.

 The officers assured that the Defence Headquarters will soon address the nation after full investigation of their latest discovery.

Meanwhile, the Defence Headquarters has disclosed that some Boko Haram terrorists have begun to surrender with their weapons voluntarily following relentless onslaught by troops.

This is contained in a statement posted on the DHQ website on Sunday.

“Some of them submitted themselves and their weapons to the leadership of the troops in Konduga during a further campaign at the weekend.

“As the heat on the terrorists continues, five terrorists surrendered on Saturday (Sept. 20) with all their weapons to troops at Konduga pleading for mercy.’’

According to the statement, other captured terrorists who refused to surrender have also been giving useful information on the subsequent plans of the group in an apparent effort to cooperate.

The DHQ recalled that in the last few days there had been several attempts by desperate terrorists to gain entry into Konduga which were foiled by the troops.

The terrorists’ move, according to the statement, is aimed at recovering the bodies of their prominent fighters who died in previous encounters in the area.

The DHQ also said that its troops had recovered more weapons during mop-up operations while some of their terrorists’ vehicles had been destroyed.