Borno-born journalist Ahmad Salkida who is known to have met with the founder of Boko Haram, Mohammed Yusuf, before his death, has said the new video – released on Thursday – which the sect’s leader Abubakar Shekau appeared in is fake. Salkida made this known in a series of tweets while addressing issues on Boko Haram. According to him,”Nigeria can compete with the US on propaganda, we are so good at it, sadly, we can’t use it in reality to solve recurring challenges. You want my opinion on the video going round, here it is; it is not only fake, but shows how gullible and unteachable most Nigeria are.”
The new video which Salkida says is fake has Shekau rejecting rumours about his death but appearing to signal his time in charge of Boko Haram may be coming to an end. In the message, Shekau speaking in Hausa language said, “This is a message of greeting and joy for you to see my face. This is my desire: that whoever sees this will hear nothing but greetings between me and you. Only Allah knows the rest, as you believed (and) as you submitted. For me the end has come. This is only the message I want to send to you for you to understand that this is certainly I. This is why I did this. May Allah protect us so that no hypocrite stands between us. May Allah protect us from the devil so that he doesn’t achieve his evil among us.”
