Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau tops the list of five leaders of militant groups desperately wanted by the United States of America for spreading terror in the Nigeria and across the West African sub-region.

The Barack Obama administration in an unprecedented move yesterday posted up to $23 million (about N3.565 billion) in rewards to help track down the five key terrorists, with the highest reward of $7 million (about N1.085 billion) being offered for information leading to the capture of Shekau, who last week called on Islamists in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq to join the bloody fight to create an Islamic state in Nigeria.
“The US State Department’s Rewards for Justice program also targeted al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), offering its first ever bounties for wanted militants in west Africa,” says an AFP report.

It said that “up to $US5 million (about N775 million) was posted for al-Qaeda veteran Mokhtar Belmokhtar, the one-eyed Islamist behind the devastating attack on an Algerian gas plant in January in which 37 foreigners, including three Americans, were killed.”

“A further $US5 million was offered for top AQIM leader Yahya Abou Al-Hammam, reportedly involved in the 2010 murder of an elderly French hostage in Niger,” says the report, adding:

“Malik Abou Abdelkarim, a senior fighter with AQIM, and Oumar Ould Hamaha, the spokesman for Mali’s Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO), were also targeted by the rewards program, which will give up to $US3 million each for information leading to their arrests.”

•Photo shows wanted Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau.