Shekau kills Boko Haram spokesman for planning to overthrow him

According to a report from AFP, Abubakar Shekau has admitted killing a spokesman of the Boko Haram sect for planning to oust him from his position as the sect's leader.


He said this in an audio recording obtained by AFP.

In the 50-minute tape of a meeting with the inner circle of his militant Islamist group, Shekau said he killed “Tasiu” — also known as Abu Zinnira — who appeared in several video messages.

“You should hear me: I killed Tasiu, hear me well,” he told the gathering in Hausa. Shekau states the date of the meeting — December 18 — and said it had been called to discuss “those elements grumbling over the killing of Tasiu”.

Abu Zinnira has on several occasions acted de facto spokesman and appeared in video recordings, including those about the more than 200 schoolgirls kidnapped from the town of Chibok in April 2014.

Abu Zinnira and “other elements” had tried to make him out to the rank and file as being “not on the right track”, Shekau added.

“Tell me, what is the punishment… for the people that plot against their leader?” he asked.

“By our code of allegiance we don’t hesitate to pass appropriate sanction on any one of us that commit an offence.”