‘Shekau’ claims Boko Haram shot down Air Force jet

Military authorities insisted that Shekau had been killed long ago while his impostor was killed in Konduga recently.But the man who appeared in the latest video resembled the one who released previous ones, and spoke in the same manner.He claimed that his men shot down the Air Force jet which was declared missing three weeks […]

Military authorities insisted that Shekau had been killed long ago while his impostor was killed in Konduga recently.
But the man who appeared in the latest video resembled the one who released previous ones, and spoke in the same manner.
He claimed that his men shot down the Air Force jet which was declared missing three weeks ago.
The jet with two pilots on board left Yola on September 12 on a routine operational mission and has not been seen.
A man said to be one of the pilots of the missing jet was shown in the video, and Shekau said they kept him alive for one week and learnt a lot about how to fly an aircraft.
Before the pilot was killed, he was allowed to speak. He said he was one of the pilots and that he did not know where the other one was.
Shekau also said Gwoza, the town he declared as part of a caliphate in August, is being run under strict Sharia law.
In the video, some people were seen being executed and others receiving other forms of punishment.
A man accused of adultery was stoned to death.
Shekau said contrary to the recent claims by the military, he is alive and will continue to elude the authorities.
The date which the video was recorded was not stated but Shekau made several references to Konduga town, which the Boko Haram made fruitless attempts to capture in the past two weeks in an apparent move towards Maiduguri.
In the 36-minute footage, Shekau appeared at an undisclosed location with scanty vegetation in the background. He speaks intermittently in Arabic, Hausa and English for 16 minutes 12 seconds. The remaining part of the footage showed gory footages of “offenders” being executed and some receiving other punishments.
But the Defence Headquarters, in a statement yesterday, said: “The Defence Headquarters is studying the claims made in the video purportedly released by the terrorists showing their leader Abubakar Shekau as dismissing his death.
“From 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.
“The video also did not make any reference to anything that has happened since the impostor’s reported death.
“It 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 decide to manipulate pictures, clone another Shekau or upload a pre-recorded video all in a bid to prove invincible.
“As far as we are concerned, the individual who was appearing in video and claiming to be the leader of the terrorist group was killed in the Kondunga battle in September.
“The resemblance of the corpse and that of the eccentric character was incontrovertible. His identity was equally corroborated by people who knew him before we announced his death.”