Crime
Boko Haram ex-commander explains why late Shekau, top leaders spared during military attacks
Boko Haram’s late leader Abu Shekau appeared a cat with nine lives to many Nigerians.
Despite claims since 2011 his position got shelled, and he was mortally wounded, Shekau survived all odds till he committed hara-kiri in 2021.
He had led a sheltered life.
So have many of them, especially members of the Shura and the level below it in the food chain.
But what’s their mojo?
Adamu Rugurugu, a repentant commander—a bottom- of-the-pile type—just explained.
In a video he PRNigeria obtained Sept. 14, Rugurugu revealed top leaders of the Boko Haram group don’t break a sweat or lift a finger, though they pose menacingly with AK-47.
They like to dispatch the ‘low-ranking’ commanders like him along with fighters of the sect to go and breast the Nigerian military troops.
Rugurugu said these butterfingers don’t even lead the fighters to battlefronts.
“The leaders (top commanders) had misled us and only God can avenge on our behalf because most of us were forcefully abducted from our homes, marched to Sambisa Forest, conscripted into their evil ideologies, persecuted and ill-treated because there is nothing that we have not seen.,” he said.
“However, we were mobilized and stationed at Sambisa Forest, busy holding the horn while the leaders (top commanders) are milking the cow.
“Those sipping the milk are different from those holding the horns, we are the ones holding the horns, while they are busy drinking the milk.
“We cheated ourselves, and we will not go back again since God has now delivered us out of this predicament, we returned to the community and soldiers have accepted us.
“The leaders are not attending the battle, it is only the low-ranking members that carry guns, have you ever heard of any ‘Khadi’ or ‘Wazir’ leading the battle on the frontlines? They will say you are doing this thing for the sake of God and when you are killed, paradise will be your final abode, I swear to God this is a scam, you are not going to any paradise.
“Personally, to my brothers who are still inside the forest, we choose to lay our arms and surrender ourselves in order to turn a good leaf.
“You should become a responsible man, everybody will praise you and government is living up to its promise, they are very vigilant, anybody who did not repent and adjust his attitudes, action will surely be taken against him.
He thanked the soldiers who have been kid to them—about 5000 of them—since they surrendered.
“We pray that God increases them in value,” Rugurugu said.
“Whoever will bring tension in Nigeria and who doesn’t want peace to reign, may Allah distance him far away from us totally.”