Who (if anyone) killed Shekau?

According to Defence Headquarters, a man who has been “impersonating” Shekau was killed at Konduga, Borno State on September 17. It said it was still trying to verify the dead man’s identity but that “preliminary findings from the bodily features etc on the corpse under examination bear sharp resemblance with those found on the man […]

According to Defence Headquarters, a man who has been “impersonating” Shekau was killed at Konduga, Borno State on September 17. It said it was still trying to verify the dead man’s identity but that “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.” Certainly the picture of the dead man bears a very striking resemblance to the man the world has come to know on You Tube as Shekau. The military also said the cameraman who used to record “Shekau’s” videos was killed alongside him in Konduga while the armoured cars and Hilux jeeps that he usually posed by in the videos were also captured.
Trouble is, Defence Headquarters refuses to say the man is Shekau because it had claimed twice in the past that it killed him at Sambisa Forest. To maintain some story consistency, Defence Headquarters therefore described the man killed at Konduga as a “Shekau impostor.” While one newspaper quoted military sources as giving the dead man’s real name as Bashir Mohamed, online media quoted other military sources as saying that his name is Isa Damsaka.
Even before Defence Headquarters sorted itself out, Cameroon waded into the matter. A story in a newspaper called Cameroon Concord said the terrorist leader in question was killed not at Konduga but near the Nigeria-Cameroon border, for that matter by Cameroonian troops! It said Cameroon’s troops shelled a place where Shekau was hiding and killed him. It referred to the dead man as Shekau, thus departing from our own forces’ line that he was an impostor.
Therefore, there are many questions still begging for quick answers. Is the picture we are seeing real? If it is, who is the dead man? Is he Abubakar Shekau, Bashir Mohamed, Isa Damsaka or someone else? Was he killed at Konduga or near the border? Who killed him? And then the most important question: will his death, whoever he is, signal the end of the Boko Haram insurgency?
 
TAN, is this your special treatment?
I sat at the edge of my chair towards the end of the Transformation Ambassadors of Nigeria’s [TAN] solidarity rally in Gombe last Saturday. For two hours I watched the event live on television as men and women fell over themselves to outdo one another in political sycophancy.
Among the many people who delivered dry and drab speeches that day were Gombe State Governor Ibrahim Dankwambo, Federal Capital Territory Minister Bala Mohamed, Transport Minister Idris Umar, Adamawa State’s Acting Governor Ahmed Umaru Fintiri and Taraba State’s Acting Governor Garba Umar UTC. The last spot was however reserved for TAN’s leader, Secretary to the Government of the Federation Anyim Pius Anyim. He ambled his way to the podium and began his speech in a very shrill voice. The discrepancy between Anyim’s girth and the shrillness of his voice surprised me.
Still, when he announced that “TAN has decided to treat North East as a very special zone” I sat on my chair’s edge. At last, I thought, a momentous Federal Government pledge is coming. Anyim then unveiled the special treatment for the North East, which is the donation of food items including rice and cooking oil to persons displaced by insecurity in the region! Anyim handed over the items to Dankwambo, who then called the North East states in turn. One by one, governors and other state delegation leaders stepped forward and collected a gallon of cooking oil each from Dankwambo for onward transmission, sorry, transformation to their states.
So that is TAN’s understanding of “special treatment,” for government to allow bandits to drive you away from your home and then come to your aid with rice and cooking oil? Hmmmn, special treatment indeed.