The leader of Islamist terrorists group, Boko Haram, Sheikh Abubakar Shekau has released a new video debunking reports earlier this week that he had been injured in an airstrike by the Nigerian Airforce.
The 14-minute video, posted on Twitter late Thursday by prominent Boko Haram reporter Ahmad Salkida, showed Shekau flanked by two hooded fighters while he embarked on his latest vitriol against the Nigerian state in Arabic and Hausa.
Titled “Sermon to the lying disbelievers of Nigeria”, the elusive Shekau slammed Nigerian authorities as “peddlers of outrageous lies” because he didn’t even know the location of the supposed air strike that injured him.
“You claimed your jets struck at our gathering while we were praying, killed some of us and injured me near Damboa. I don’t even know the town you mentioned. “Gather all the photojournalists, the camera men and pressmen you have, let them assess this video to determine if I was wounded,” he said.
“Shekau is alive, Shekau is alive, Shekau has yet to start killing in the name of his religion,” he yelled in Hausa, calling out President Muhammadu Buhari and Army Chief Tukur Buratai.
“Shekau’s caliphate is very much alive.
“Be patient, once my time on earth ends, I will die. Nothing will happen to me.”
Shekau has severally posted video messages debunking reports of his death during military operations in the past, though Army spokesman Brigadier-General Usman Sani Kukasheka said the Army authorities was still waiting to be briefed on the details of the operation before making any official statement.
