The Defence Headquarters (DHQ) yesterday said it was not bothered by the rhetoric contained in a video recently released by acclaimed leader of the Boko Haram, Abubakar Shekau.
Contacted yesterday to comment on the video, Defence spokesman, Brigadier General Rabe Abubakar said: “Which Shekau did you see?, remember anybody can replicate him.”
“We know they are dying elements of the group and they will all cease to exist soon. We are not ready for a media war which they like us to engage in.”
The defence spokesman argued that since they had failed in combat, now they want to go engage the media space, adding: “We will remain focused and his threats are just a figment of his imagination.”
He said Nigerians should not be deceived by a non-existent person called Shekau, while advising other defiant members of the group to surrender.
He said Nigerians should not be deceived by a non-existent person called Shekau, while advising other defiant members of the group to surrender.
Abubakar Shekau’s Boko Haram recently released video in which it threatened to attack Abuja, President Muhammadu Buhari, the Chief of Army Staff Lt. Gen Tukur Buratai and indeed, the entire world.
In the 24-minute video which first featured a masked man surrounded by armed men in a non-descript location, the militant group told ISIS leader, Abubakar Al-baghdadi, that it would not follow the new leader he named for it because he doesn’t follow what they call the authentic creed.
Shekau in the new video threatened fresh but more attacks on the Nigerian state and its West and Central African neighbours (Camerron, Chad and Niger).
The group expressed displeasure with the Albagdadhi-led ISIS for recognising Mr. Albarnawi as the new leader of Boko Haram in West Africa but did not declare disloyalty to him.
