- The leader of Boko Haram’s main faction, Abubakar
Shekau, has admitted killing the group’s spokesman
- Shekau said his action was over an apparent plot to
oust him
- He said this in an audio recording obtained by AFP
The leader of Boko Haram’s main faction,
Abubakar Shekau, has admitted killing the
group’s spokesman over an apparent plot to oust
him.
Abubakar Shekau kills Boko Haram spokesman
In a 50-minute audio tape obtained by AFP,
Shekau told some members of his inner circle
that he killed “Tasiu” also known as Abu Zinnira
who appeared in several video messages.
“You should hear me: I killed Tasiu, hear me well,” he
told the gathering in Hausa.
He also stated the date of the meeting (December
18) and said it had been called to discuss “those
elements grumbling over the killing of Tasiu”.
Shekau’s claim appears to lend weight to reports
of infighting within Boko Haram, whose
insurgency has killed at least 20,000 in northeast
Nigeria since 2009 and left 2.6 million homeless.
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Shekau has been the most visible face of Boko
Haram over the years, claiming attacks and
releasing videos where he threatened and
lambasted Nigerian authorities.
But Abu Zinnira has acted on occasion as de
facto spokesman and appeared in video
recordings, including those about the more than
200 schoolgirls kidnapped from the town of
Chibok in April 2014.
He was always shown in military camouflage,
wearing a turban and with his face covered.
In one video released in August last year, Abu
Zinnira warned that the remaining girls still
being held would die if troops attempted to
rescue them.
He also renewed calls for the release of Boko
Haram members in custody.
In the December audio recording, Shekau
accused Abu Zinnira of plotting with another
senior commander called Baba Ammar to take
over leadership of the group.
He accused them of sending fighters to carry out
raids without his consent, spreading rumours
among his lieutenants that he intended to kill
them and portraying him as unfit to lead.
Abu Zinnira and “other elements” had tried to
make him out to the rank and file as being “not on
the right track”, Shekau added.
“Tell me, what is the punishment for the people that plot
against their leader?” he asked.
“By our code of allegiance we don’t hesitate to pass
appropriate sanction on any one of us that commit an
offence,” he added.
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Last August, the Islamic State group, to which
Shekau pledged allegiance in March 2015,
announced that Abu Musab Al-Barnawi was now
Boko Haram’s leader.
Barnawi’s father, Mohammed Yusuf, founded
Boko Haram in 2002. He was killed in police
custody in 2009, after which Shekau his deputy
took over.
Shekau had rejected the change in leadership
and maintained he was still in charge, a position
he reiterated at the December meeting.
Followers of the two factions have reportedly
clashed while Barnawi has blamed Shekau’s
high-handed leadership style and his
indiscriminate killings of his lieutenants for the
split.
Ideologically, Barnawi’s faction has opposed
Shekau’s indiscriminate targeting of civilians,
vowing instead to hit “hard” targets such as the
military and police.
Shekau in the recording denounced his
detractors as divisive influences.
“Devil’s advocates are at work, trying to instill doubt in the
minds of our fighters after realising we are gathering
momentum for real jihad.
“They try to confuse whoever they see getting close to me
and distance him from me, they are going about dampening
the spirit of our fighters,” he said.
