With the relentless bombardment of terrorists in the North-East in the past two months, the Nigerian military has raised a poser on the whereabouts of Shekau, the Boko Haram spokesman.
The military in a statement yesterday said there had been no press statements from the tough-talking Shekau since the tide turned against the insurgents.
A military source said: “Since the declaration of the final push against the insurgents in the middle of February, and directive to clear all terrorists’ camps before May 29 handover date, the Nigerian troops have been on the lookout for Shekau and other commanders of Boko Haram.
“The man simply disappeared from the radar. Even his communications through Thuraya satellite phones that are usually monitored, have disappeared and it is like the guy suddenly vanished. We wish we could catch him alive.”
According to the source, the last that was heard of Shekau was the unverified broadcast pledging allegiance to Islamic State (IS) early in March, which was posted on Boko Haram’s Twitter account. In that broadcast, he also vowed to disrupt the re-scheduled elections.
Shekau was quoted to have said: “This election will not be held even if we are dead. Even if we are not alive, Allah will never allow you to do it.” He made the statement in Hausa.
Despite the threats, however, the group was unable to disrupt the 2015 general elections, as polls were comparatively peaceful throughout the country on March 28 and April 11.
Since securing a six-week extension of the 2015 general elections date in February, Nigerian troops have essentially flushed out Boko Haram terrorists from the 21 local government areas that they occupied in three states of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe.
The military has invaded the notorious forest hideouts of the terrorists and is systematically combing them to clear the entire Nigerian territory of insurgents.
On Wednesday, Defence Headquarters issued a statement detailing the killing of a notorious top terrorists’ commander, Abu Mojahid, among scores of others in the outskirt of Alagarno on Tuesday morning. The Sun
