The Defence authorities have confirmed the killing of the leader of Boko Haram, Abubakar Shekau, during one of the four encounters with insurgents in Kodunga, Borno State between September 12 and 17, 2014.
The Director of Defence Information, Maj. Gen. Chris Olukolade, said during a news conference in Abuja on Wednesday, that the corpse of the insurgents’ leader was identified by the people of Kodunga.
He said that Shekau whose real name was Mohammed Bashir had used other names like Abacha Abdullahi Geidam and Damasack.
Olukolade illustrated the Defence authorities claim with pictures of the bullet-ridden corpse of Shekau and a video of the battle in which he was killed.
Four days ago, the Cameroon Concord reported that the Cameroonian troops killed Shekau during a cross border aerial bombardment of his hideout in Nigeria on Saturday.
To prove the killing, the newspaper also published photographs of the bearded Shekau whom it said then usually appeared in videos as the leader of Boko Haram.
But Olukolade dismissed the claim that Shekau was killed by Cameroonian security forces within Nigeria.
“There was no raid whatsoever by Cameroon or any foreign forces in any part of Nigeria’s territory in pursuit of terrorists as claimed in some reports allegedly quoting Cameroon authorities,” he had said.
He had also claimed in a tweet on Wednesday last week that troops who repelled an attack by insurgents in Kodunga, captured a high ranking terrorist leader who was being treated in military medical facility.
On Tuesday, a journalist said to be a close ally of Boko Haram, Ahmad Salkida, said he had it on “authority” that Shekau was hale and hearty.
Writing on his Twitter handle, Salkida, who is on self-exile in the United Arab Emirates, claimed that Shekau was not the one in the pictures of a corpse that trended on Monday on social media after they were published by the Cameroon Concord.
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