The power tussle in Boko Haram seems to have climaxed with the shooting and deposing of the leader, Sheikh Abubakar Shekau.

A report in the Lagos newspaper Vanguard said that the leader of the violent Islamic sect has also been deposed after being shot by rivals within the group. A new leader, Abu Zamira Mohammed, who is the sect’s leader negotiating with the federal government has been appointed new leader by the group’s Shura Council, the report said.

The successful coup comes almost three weeks after Shekau publicly disowned a ceasefire agreement with the Boko Haram Amnesty Committee which had been earlier announced by his deputy, Sheikh Abdulazeez.

In a video released in Borno State, headquarters of Boko Haram but from which it has been dislodged by Nigerian troops, Shekau, outrightly disowned Sheikh Abdulazeez, saying:

“We are stating it categorically that we are not in any dialogue or ceasefire agreement with anyone. And we have never asked anybody in the name Abdulazeez to represent me, Abubakar Shekau, the leader of this movement.

“I swear by Allah that Abdulazeez or whatever he calls himself did not get any authority from me to represent me in any capacity. I do not know him. And if we per adventure encounter Abulazeez and his group, I swear by Allah we are going to mete them with the grave judgment that Allah has prescribed for their likes in the holy book.”

Shekau had also threatened more attacks in states such as Yobe, Borno, Bauchi, Kano, Kaduna, Taraba and Adamawa. As if to make good that threat, Boko Haram struck in Borno last Saturday and in Kano on Monday, killing scores of people in attacks that have outraged even radical Muslims since they took place during the holy month of Ramadan.

Reacting to Shekau’s titade, Sheikh Abdulazeez restated that Boko Haram had agreed to a ceasefire and said there was nothing Shekau could do about that.

Shekau is has since been declared wanted by the United States of America, with a $7 million (about N1.085 billion) bounty placed on his head.

News Express reports that the Boko Haram Amnesty Committee (formally known as Presidential Committee on Dialogue and Peaceful Resolution of Security Challenges in North) headed by Nigeria’s Minister of Special Duties, Alhaji Tanimu Turaki, had announced a ceasefire agreement with Boko Haram exactly 82 days after President Jonathan raised the 25-man committee and gave it 90 days to seal a deal with the insurgents. The committee has been given two more months by President Jonathan.

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