Boko Haram’s leader Abubakar Shekau “alive and well” – Ahmed Salkida

Ahmed Salkida, a Dubai-based Nigerian journalist who reportedly maintains communication with some leaders of the Islamist insurgent group Boko Haram, claimed yesterday that the sect’s leader, Abubakar Shekau, is alive and well.
In a report by an online publication, SaharaReporter, Mr. Salkida denied reports asserting that Nigerian troops had killed the mercurial and fiendish Shekau, the speaker and voice in numerous videos released by Boko Haram.
According to SaharaReporter, Salkida, tn a tweet earlier yesterday, also dismissed media reports that the Federal Government was negotiating with Boko Haram for the release of more than 200 schoolgirls kidnapped in mid-April by Boko Haram militants in Chibok, Borno State.
The reporter’s tweet also described as untrue reports that the International Red Cross (IRC) was working on a deal that would persuade Boko Haram to free the abducted Chibok schoolgirls in exchange for the release of detained Islamist insurgents in the custody of Nigerian security agencies.
Earlier today, SaharaReporters had published a report to the effect that a Nigerian intelligence source revealed that the person whose dead body is seen in photos circulating in news reports was not Shekau but one “Mohammed Bashir”.
SaharaReporter said its intelligence source stated that the dead Islamist figure, who bore a striking semblance to Mr. Shekau, was indeed a look-alike who appeared in videos released by the Islamist sect.
Mr. Salkida’s tweet appeared to confirm that the Boko Haram “officer” killed by Nigerian soldiers in Konduga was a different person from Mr. Shekau. In fact, Nigerian security officials have maintained for months that Mr. Shekau was dead, apparently killed by his own disaffected lieutenants in an internal rivalry for control of the terrorist organization.