Shekau’s Allegiance To ISIS Changes Nothing – Nigerian Army

 The Nigerian Army on Sunday said allegiance to the
Islamic State of Iraq and Syria by the wanted leader of the
Boko Haram insurgents, Abubakar Shekau, could not safe
him.
The Acting Director, Army Public Relations, Col. Sani
Usman, in an interview on the Hausa service of the British
Broadcasting Corporation monitored in Maiduguri, said
the entire nation, especially citizens living in the troubled
North-East zone, needed not to be afraid that Shekau’s
allegiance to the ISIS terrorist group would mean a
renewed reign of terror.

Usman said the military was in control of the situation in
the North-East.

Shekau’s allegiance to ISIS was contained in an audio clip
posted on his Twitter account on Saturday.

“With or without allegiance to ISIS, the days of Shekau has
already been numbered, because all the insurgents’
training camps and hideouts in the affected North-East
have been destroyed, while the terrorists have been routed
from their camps and hideouts; and those who have
escaped our “condone and search operations” in the
Sambisa Forest and the Lake Chad Basin Areas, are on the
run, abandoning their operational vehicles, arms and
ammunitions,” Usman said.

He said that the Boko Haram’s allegiance to ISIS was
meant to cause more “fears and terror” among Nigerian
citizens, because the modus operandi of insurgents, are
also similar to the Islamic fundamentalists in some Middle
East countries.”

“Shekau’s public allegiance to IS clearly indicates that he
may surrender or be killed in the ongoing joint military
operations of Nigeria and three neighbouring countries of
Chad, Cameroon and Niger,” Usman said.

Meanwhile, a security expert, Max Gbanite, has described
the allegiance by Boko Haram to the ISIS as a sign of
desperation and an indication that the deadly sect is in the
throes of death.

Gbanite, in a telephone interview from the United States
on Sunday, said that Boko Haram’s call to ISIS was an
attempt to lure northern youths from affluent homes
schooling in Malaysia and other places into its fold.

He noted that the deadly sect was seeking for recognition
by ISIS because it had lost credibility with Al-Qaeda, which
condemned it for abducting the Chibok schoolgirls in
April, 2014.

Gbanite said, “Their (Boko Haram) pledge is a desperate
attempt to be recognised by ISIS and to entice young
northern Nigerians from affluent homes like Ibrahim
Uwais and the young Abdulmutallab and others schooling
in Malaysia into their fold.

“Already, they have foreign boots from Central African
Republic, Chad, Niger and Mali. Federal Government must
continue to pound and pound until they are annihilated.”