The author
By Saleh Bature
Abubakar Shekau, the most devilish man and the biggest enemy of Islam and humanity to have lived in this part of the world in the 21st century is dead. Shekau died following an exchange of fire between Boko Haram, a faction of the terrorist group he led, and ISWAF, a breakaway rival faction that has been slugging it out with Boko Haram in their hideout at Sambisa Forest. While Nigerians were mourning the painful demise of Nigeria’s Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant General Ibrahim Attahiru in a plane crash along with 11 other soldiers, the death of Shekau, which occurred a day before the national tragedy of Attahiru’s death, was celebrated as good riddance across the country.
Didi Akinyelure, BBC World News Komla Dumor Award winner has reported that the leader of the Boko Haram had been reported dead several times before now. It was reported that Shekau was killed during clashes between Nigeria’s security forces and Boko Haram in 2009 as he assumed the leadership of the terror group. There was another report that he had been killed in July 2010 but only for him to appear in a videotaped interview admitting that although he had been shot in the thigh, he had been rescued and was in control of the Boko Haram killing machine. An intelligence report suggested that Shekau was shot on June 30th, 2013 following a military raid on the jihadist group’s shelter, Sambisa Forest and subsequently died between July 25th and August 3rd, 2013. Similarly, the Nigerian Army informed the nation that Shekau had been killed in September 2014, this time by the Cameroonian military, during a Boko Haram attempt to capture Kondunga. Like several reports before this, local media debunked the claim stating that the man in the photo was a Shekau imposter. In August 2015, Chadian President, Idris Etno Deby told African nations engulfed in the Boko Haram wave of carnage that the group had been decapitated and Shekau, its leader replaced by a new leader.
The latest report of Shekau’s death on May 20th, 2021 has put to rest the claims that the leader of the dreaded Boko Haram was invincible, immortal, or had many lives. Sheikh Abdulwahab Abdallah had warned Shekau to await an ignominious end as punishment for assassinating two famous Islamic clerics, Sheikh Jaafar Mahmud Adam and Sheikh Muhammad Awwal Albany Zaria, and many others in his unreasonable and misguided Jihad.
CNN reported Shekau died on Wednesday evening after detonating a suicide vest he was wearing to avoid capture by ISWAF commanders who had disarmed many of his fighters during clashes between the two groups in the month of Ramadan. Shekau had suffered a humiliating death. He died like a coward. He finally got caught up in the three dreaded triangles of death, fear, and humiliation, the weapons he used to terrorize innocent victims. “More than 30,000 people have been killed and nearly 3 million displaced in a Boko Haram terror activities in Nigeria,” according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
Abubakar Shekau will be responsible for the death and blood of people who died as a result of the Boko Haram attack and others who were displaced by their wanton destruction. The good thing is no matter the number of years one spent committing atrocities against humanity in this temporal world, death will eventually overtake him. We hope Shekau will not resurface again to continue his videotaped comicry and bloodletting.
Issues to ponder: Nigerians should not celebrate the death of Shekau, that evil man who represents the wicked Boko Haram ideology. His passing does not mean the end of terrorism in Nigeria, just as the demise of Abubakar Baghdadi, his greatest hero, did not end terrorism in Syria, Iraq, Libya, and other flashpoints in the world. Terrorists have a systematic and swift way of naming a new Amir to continue with their atrocities with no break. Three days after the report of Shekau’s demise, Shekau has not come out to deny the report in the usual videotaped message. Curiously, Boko Haram has not yet announced a new leader, a move that indicates that the group is directionless and in disarray.
Chapter 4 verse 93 of the Holy Quran will suffice at this juncture: But whoever kills a believer intentionally – his recompense is Hell, wherein he will abide eternally, and Allah has become angry with him and has cursed him and has prepared for him a great punishment. Shekau and his accomplices in crime will suffer the punishment of those who kill a believer intentionally. Their recompense on the day of reckoning will be (1) hell, (2) they will abide therein forever, (3) Allah will be angry with them, (4) He has cursed them, and; (5) He has prepared for them a great torment.
Saleh Bature wrote in this piece from NDIC Quarters, Limpopo Street, Maitama Abuja. He is reachable at baturesuba@yahoo.co.uk
