The leader of the Boko Haram terrorist group, Abubakar Shekau has published a video message in which he denied any ceasefire agreement with, or having a dialogue with the Federal Government.
His message, which was delivered in the Hausa language was translated thus:
“May the peace and blessings of Allah be upon you all. This is an important message to all people.
“There is this wicked rumour making the rounds that we have dialogued with government of Nigeria which led to a ceasefire on our part. We have also heard how some of our operations and attacks are being credited to criminals.
“As such the security agents have been killing our armed members in the name of criminals. We have seen how our members who were out on holy mission are being attacked and killed with the label of criminals.
“We are telling the world that whoever kills any of our members in the name of being criminals would surely be avenged unless such person repents now. We are stating it categorically that we are not in any dialogue or ceasefire agreement with anyone. And we have never asked anybody in the name Abdulazeez to represent me, Abubakar Shekau, the leader of this movement.
He also denied the said spokesman of the group which claimed that they had reached a ceasefire agreement, threatening to mete out ‘great judgement’ on him should he be caught.
“I swear by Allah that Abdulazeez or whatever he is calls himself did not get any authority from me to represent me in any capacity. I do not know him. And if we peradventure encounter Abulazeez and his group, I swear by Allah we are going to mete out the grave judgment that Allah has prescribed for their likes in the holy book.
“I want the world to know that we have no dialogue with government. I have on several occasions attempted to pass this message across via the Internet and Youtube and we later realised that some agents of government kept removing our messages from the net and preventing its online publication so that our messages will not be heard. They know that if the world hears our position on this fake dialogue, their efforts of deceit would be exposed.
He went on to threaten more attacks in Yobe, Borno, Bauchi, Adamawa, Kano, Kaduna, Taraba and Adamawa States:
“We are also sending this strong message to the people of Yobe, Borno, Bauchi, Kano, Kaduna, Taraba, Adamawa, and any state, that whoever kills any of our members should await a grave retaliation from us.
“God knows that we don’t kill unjustly except those that conspired against us or those that directly fight us, or the government that is waging war upon Allah and His Prophet. We will continue waging war against them until we succeeded in establishing an Islamic state in Nigeria.
He ended his message by saying that there was no dialogue in Islam, and the purpose of his message was to make that clear, and that they would never back down or surrender.
“This message is prepared by me and targeted towards clarifying the issue of ceasefire. We have never had any dialogue with anyone. How would we have had dialogue with the government when our members are being killed and detained in cells, both women and children? Do you call this dialogue?
“That is not dialogue or truce in Islam. In Islam there are condition prescribed for us to go into dialogue, and there are also situation in which we cannot go in to dialogue. What we are doing now is what is prescribed for us by Allah and his holy prophet.
“We are workers in the vine yard of Allah. We are not out to cause destruction, but correct the ills of the society. And Allah is more powerful than all, and He has the might.
“Allah will surely assist us to victory. This is my message to you. If you have not heard from me all this while, now my message should have reached you all.”
This published video comes on the backdrop of recent events, such as yesterday afternoon’s attack on a military base in Monguno, Borno State by suspected Boko Haram militants where about 20 of them were killed when the Joint Task Force on the base repelled the attack.
The Joint Task Force yesterday also announced the arrest of two top Boko Haram commanders that were allegedly responsible for the Maiduguri multiple bomb blasts of last Thursday, while 11 governors were holding their meeting on the new All Progressive Congress, APC, party at Government House.
According to the statement by the JTF, they were being held in JTF custody undergoing interrogations.
Also, the allies of Boko Haram outside the country have been suffering heavy losses, with the Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) lost two of its top commanders in 48 hours.
A top AQIM commander, Abdelhamid AbouZeid was killed by Chadian soldiers seeking revenge for the killing of 12 of their colleagues by Islamists in northern Mali.
24 hours later, another top commander of AQIM and one of the world’s most wanted terrorists, Mokhtar Belmokhtar was killed, also by the Chadian forces in Mali.
Belmokhtar, a 40-year old one-eyed terrorist, was the brain behind the siege and capture of an Algerian gas plant in January, which ended with 37 foreign hostages dead.
Even though both deaths could not be confirmed by French and American diplomats and intelligence officials, they have lifted the morale of the Chadian troops which have suffered heavy casualties in fighting against the militants.