Shekau Feels the Heat, Spits Out ‘Fatwa’

Matilda Omonaiye/

Boko Haram’s factional leader, Abubakar Shekau, appears to have felt the heat of latest assaults by the military, going by his latest outburst in a video in which he called on his men to shoot and kill infidels in Abuja, Lagos and other parts of the country.

Unlike earlier videos, Shekau did not direct his latest message to cells of Boko Haram militants, but to volunteers, sympathetic to the terrorist group.

“Brothers, if you are in Abuja, or in Kaduna, or in Lagos, or in Benin, or Chad, or Niger — wherever you are — if you come across anyone that professes Nigeria, if they do so ignorantly, you should educate them. But if deliberate, shoot him, brother,” Shekau said in the 10-minute video released days after Nigeria’s military announced it has totally destroyed the group, following the  take-over of Sambisa Forest.

On Monday, Maj. General Nicholas Rogers, Commander of Operation Lafiya Dole announced further collaboration with a unit of Cameroon Defence Force to further obliterate the group.

Shekau debunked the military’s claim and also ridiculed the cooperation with Cameroon’s military.

He called the Theatre Commander a liar, wondering why the military was yet to rescue the policewomen he abducted in June 2017, who are still being held in Sambisa. He also claimed the tank allegedly captured by soldiers in Sambisa was abandoned by the sect years ago.

“Their leader claiming that they have partnered with Cameroon and others to fight us, not only in Sambisa but in Nigeria as a whole and Cameroon, and saying they do not want to see any member of Boko Haram,” Shekau said. “We also do not want to see anyone that pledges allegiance to Nigeria in Cameroon, Nigeria, Chad, or Benin.

“We are in war with those that pledge to Nigeria his country, to be faithful, loyal and honest, to serve Nigeria. We are in war against those who build schools attended by infidels. Anyone following any tenets different from that which Prophet Mohammed brought is against us and we will to go war against them.”