Is Shekau dead or alive?

There is heightening controversy over the status of Abubakar Shekau, the leader of the Jama’atu Ahlis Sunnah Lidda’awati Wal Jihad, also known as Boko Haram. Theories abound, with some saying he is dead, some claiming he is alive and even those who believe he doesn’t really exist. Abubakar Shekau’s story is an enigmatic one, with […]

There is heightening controversy over the status of Abubakar Shekau, the leader of the Jama’atu Ahlis Sunnah Lidda’awati Wal Jihad, also known as Boko Haram. Theories abound, with some saying he is dead, some claiming he is alive and even those who believe he doesn’t really exist.

Abubakar Shekau’s story is an enigmatic one, with many, including security agents and other observers of the Boko Haram crisis, being of the belief that he is dead, insisting that the man who has been appearing in recent videos is an impostor. But some top security officers and some individuals who know Shekau very well, believe that he is still alive and in charge. To them, if Shekau was not alive, the sect would have been history by now and they also say he remains the driving force behind the violent group.
Whether he is alive or not, one undisputable fact about Shekau is that his name and persona are a rallying point for his foot soldiers and those who share his ideology, even if a good number of them have never seen him in person.
According to those who know him very well – and still believe he is alive – Shekau maintains a number of command structures. Recently, a source with unfettered access to the sect said contrary to popular belief, Shekau is not dead. “Stories about his purported death were simply meant to destabilize his members and I don’t think that has been achieved,” he told Weekly Trust. He pointed out that in June, 2012, the United States designated Shekau as a terrorist and in June, 2013, placed a $7m reward on his head.
Rise to infamy
In July 2009, Mohammed Yusuf, the then leader of the group was allegedly killed by the police while in captivity. About the same time, hundreds of his followers were also killed during a violent confrontation between Nigerian troops and members of the sect in Maiduguri, Borno State. Shekau, who hails  from Shekau village in Gujba local government area  of Yobe State, was then second-in-command and was also believed to have been killed during the skirmishes.
This was because nothing had been heard of him for nearly a year even as the group went underground. With many of their dwellings, including Markas, their headquarters in Railway Quarters in Maiduguri destroyed, it seemed they were neutralized. But Shekau’s name popped up in mid-2010, when a series of killings of security agents, clerics and selected civilians began to manifest in Maiduguri and environs, marking the resurgence of the group.
Following their reappearance, the group adopted a method of claiming responsibility for most of their attacks and in some instances, warning of impending attacks through letters, CDs, phone calls and even teleconferences with journalists.
For the next two years, Shekau, then said to be in his early 40s, was reportedly in charge of the group and he hardly talks directly and only rarely appears in videos. The job of publicity was left to his lieutenants like Abu Zaid, Abu Dardaa and Abu Qaqa, who variously acted as spokesmen.
During the time under review, the spokesmen always reminded journalists that they were speaking on behalf of ‘Imam’, the name given to Shekau by his followers. He was also being referred to as ‘Darul Tawheed’ by Shura and other top members of the group, apparently because of his knowledge of jurisprudence.
In February 2012, Abu Dardaa, who commands operations of the group and also doubled as publicity head of the group, was captured by the State Security Service (SSS) in Kaduna. Abu Qaqa, who took over publicity affairs from Dardaa, was also reportedly killed at a checkpoint in Kano in October, 2012. From then, Shekau began to appear in videos more frequently.
Unlike his predecessor Mohammed Yusuf, those who know Shekau describe him as an unforgiving and ill-tempered, ready to die for his conviction. His leadership has been marked by increased cases of violent attacks across northern Nigeria and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.
The world’s most wanted
On 23rd November, 2012, the then Joint Task Force (JTF) in Borno State, charged with the responsibility of taming the Boko Haram insurgents, placed a N50 million bounty on Shekau’s head, for even a hint on the sect leader’s whereabouts. In all, a ransom of N290 million has been placed on him, along with 18 other senior members. Over time, many on the wanted list were killed, others captured alive and kept in various detention cells, with a handful still at large.
When the story of Shekau’s death made headlines on 19th August, 2013, it was the now-defunct JTF in Borno that issued a statement to that effect. This was a few days after said ‘Shekau’ appeared in a video and many attacks were launched in Gambaru-Ngala, Bama and Mallam Fatori by his group. The 32-minute video showed Shekau alone in a green kaftan, a cap and turban on his head. He also slung an AK-47 on his right shoulder, a piece of paper on his left hand and a chewing stick on his right hand.
Lt.-Col. Sagir Musa, who was spokesman of the JTF, declared the video a fake. According to him, intelligence reports available revealed that Shekau may have died of gunshot wounds in an encounter with security operatives in a Boko Haram camp in Sambisa Forest on the 30th of June, 2013. “Shekau was mortally wounded in the encounter and was sneaked into Amitchide, a border community in Cameroon, for treatment and he never recovered,” Lt-Col. Musa said, adding that it is believed the sect’s leader died between 25th July and 3rd August, 2013. The spokesman also said the video released afterwards by the purported sect leader was dramatized by an imposter to hoodwink the sect members to keep on with their campaign of terror.
Since then, controversy surrounding the actual fate of Shekau has been assuming various dimensions.
Raging controversy
A suspected member of Boko Haram, who was arrested by youth vigilantes also known as ‘Civilian JTF’ in Maiduguri said he believes Shekau is dead, but argued that he was not shot in Sambisa forest and did not die on the earlier-mentioned dates. “[Shekau] was killed in Kirenowa, in the northern part of Borno State, shortly after the declaration of State of Emergency and our commander even showed us the video of the burial,” he said.
A senior security officer who spoke to Weekly Trust also strongly believes Shekau is no more. “When you look at [Shekau’s] recent videos, it’s not the same man in the video we used to see about two years ago. The one we are seeing these days is mimicking the original one, who was taller and bigger, as well as calmer during presentation. His facial features are different,” he said.
A lawyer, who does not want to be named for security reasons, said he never took the announcement of Shekau’s death by the military seriously. He believes that if Shekau were dead, the rising profile of Boko Haram wouldn’t have been possible. “The death of Shekau is a sensitive issue, too big to be announced in a press statement in Maiduguri. This is probably the most wanted man after late Osama Bin Laden we’re talking about. His death would’ve been announced by the President,” he said.
‘Proof of life’?
On 25th September, 2013, Shekau (or a doppelganger) appeared in a video and said the military knows that he is alive but simply wanted to provoke him to talk after his long silence. In the video, he dressed in camouflage uniform, sat on a rug surrounded by some of his acolytes wielding guns.
Shekau began the video with Arabic greetings and intermittently spoke in Hausa and English languages, but rounded up the speech in Kanuri language. He said: “O’ you people of the world and Nigeria in particular, this is the latest on my life.  They alleged I was dead but here I am. Here I am, alive, hale and hearty. I deliberately kept mute all this while, laughing at Nigerian authorities who misled the world, that I am dead.  I wish they would stop bothering themselves because I cannot be stopped from doing what I am doing.”
He continued: “The claim that I was injured in Sambisa and taken to Amichide in Cameroon for treatment is not true. By Allah, I was never in Cameroon. Only Allah knows my whereabouts because I only give orders and I will never tell anyone where I am.”
Soon after, experts, including some SSS officials that closely watched the video, said it was an impostor claiming to be Shekau, saying the ‘duplicate’ was wrong on several grounds. They pointed out that unlike previous occasions when Shekau spoke, he was never interrupted by any background praise, a development quite unlike what happened in the latest video.
The SSS source said there was gross inconsistency in the movement of lips of the ‘new’ Shekau, stressing that the current one intermittently speaks in English, a language never understood or spoken by the ‘original’.
But Abdullahi Abubakar, a resident of Maiduguri, says recent videos suggest that Shekau is alive because the videos released in February this year on the killing of Sheikh Albani Zaria, the one on the March attack on Giwa Barracks in Maiduguri, the April video on the Nyanya, Abuja, and the last one this month, which showed about 130 of the 276 girls abducted at Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok are enough to convince any doubters.
Between those who believe that Shekau is alive and those who feel he is dead, are those who suggest the Boko Haram leader is merely a character created by powerful people with vested interests. One of them told Weekly Trust that powerful forces are behind Boko Haram’s operations. “How else are they amassing weapons in the forest? How is it possible that the insurgents are operating Armoured Personnel Carriers (APCs) seized from troops that have passwords and can be tracked by their manufacturers? How is the leadership of the group getting water, food and other necessities to take care of thousands of their fighters for months? Why is it easy for them to override towns and villages overnight and get back to their enclaves without a trace?” And the questions hung, along with the status of the sect’s leader.