UFollowing a relentless onslaught by the Nigerian Army, many members of the Boko Haram sect have begun to surrender voluntarily. Some of them submitted themselves and their weapons to the leadership of the troops in Konduga during a further campaign at the weekend.
The Defence Headquarters tweeted that, “As the heat on the terrorists continues, five terrorists surrendered on Saturday (September 20, 2014) with all their weapons to troops at Konduga, pleading for mercy.”
Other captured terrorists who refused to surrender have also been giving useful information on the plans of the group, in an apparent offer to cooperate.
In the last few days, the insurgents have made several desperate attempts to gain entry to Konduga, which the military in the area have continued to foil. Checks showed that the move by the insurgents was aimed at recovering the bodies of their prominent fighters who had died in the previous encounters in the area.
Meanwhile, the Nigerian Army has recovered more weapons during mop-up operations, while some of the insurgents’ vehicles have been destroyed.
Another Shekau allegedly killed
Nigerian troops might have scored a strategic victory in the current battle against terrorists operating in the north east as military sources claim that the man who claimed to be the spokesman of the Boko Haram may have been killed on September 17.
The sources said that during a desperate attempt to capture Konduga in the insurgents’ delusion to eventually march on Maiduguri and capture the city, the man who had been mimicking the late Abubakar Shekau in recent videos might have been killed.
It is widely believed within military cycles that the real Shekau had been killed in one of the clashes between the troops and the terrorists but few months later, another sect commander came out claiming to be Shekau.
“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,” senior military and intelligence sources said yesterday.
The security sources said the suspected demise of the Boko Haram leader may be responsible for the scattering of the sect members in different locations in neighbouring countries, especially in Cameroon, as noticed in recent days.
The security sources, however, 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.”
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 the videos of the said Shekau.
The officers gave the assurance that the Defence Headquarters would soon address the nation after full investigation into the latest discovery.
Source : Leadership newspaper
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