SAN FRANCISCO, March 08, (THEWILL) – The allegiance to the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq (ISIS) by Boko Haram notwithstanding, the Nigerian Army has declared that the days of Abubakar Shekau, the Boko Haram leader, are numbered.
Maintaining that the recent declaration of allegiance to ISIS by Shekau is a defeatist action, the Acting Director, Army Public Relations, Col. Sani Usman, said there is no cause for alarm.
Making these declarations in an interview on the Hausa service of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) monitored in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, the Army spokesman said Shekau’s allegiance to ISIS would spur the Army into unleashing a renewed and more devastating campaign against Boko Haram.
Shekau’s allegiance to ISIS was contained in an audio statement posted on his Twitter account on Saturday.
But the army spokesman said: “With or without allegiance to IS, the days of Shekau has already been numbered, because, all the insurgents’ training camps and hideouts in the affected Northeast, are destroyed, while the terrorists have been routed from their camps and hideouts; and those who have escaped our ‘cordon and search operations’ in the Sambisa Forest and the Lake Chad Basin Areas, are on the run; abandoning their operational vehicles, arms and ammunition.”
While admitting that Boko Haram’s allegiance to ISIS may cause “fears and terror” among Nigerians, Usman said “Shekau’s public allegiance to IS, clearly indicates that he may surrender or be killed in the ongoing joint military operations of Nigeria and three neighbouring countries of Chad, Cameroon and Niger.”
