by Wale Odunsi; DailyPost
An Australian negotiator, Dr. Stephen Davis, who alleged that a former governor of Borno State, Senator Ali Modu Sheriff, and an erstwhile Chief of Army Staff, Lt. General Azubuike Ihejirika, had ties with the Boko Haram, has made another revelation.
Davis gave insight into how Abubakar Shekau hijacked the Islamist group.
“The Boko Haram we see today is not the Jama’atu Ahlul Sunnah Lih Da’awa wal Jihad (JAS) that was operational under Yusuf – former JAS leader killed by the police in 2009”
Shekau, according to him, formed Ansaru which he used for kidnapping and beheading victims, a major departure from the original mandate of the JAS which was to purify Islam and return it to the exemplary life of the Prophet.
- Related: Boko Haram I & Boko Haram II: In Light Of New Revelations & Wikileaks Docs, by Peregrino Brimah
Continuing, “Many among the JAS leadership are no longer active and others have been killed. This has allowed Shekau to take the JAS to a more extreme action and expand the frontiers of kidnapping, bombing and slaughtering.
“The Boko Haram we have today is a much expanded Ansaru. What we see now is not the Yusufiya which wanted very much to settle a score with former Governor Ali Modu Sheriff. It is Boko Haram as a partner to ISIS and Al Shabaab.”
Davis claimed to have interacted with former commanders of JAS and others close to Boko Haram