Shekau's Death and the Continuing Killings in Borno

Shekau's Death and the Continuing Killings in Borno
By Abdulkareem Haruna Umar

Two weeks back, the JTF in Borno state issued a statement claiming the Boko Haram leader, Abubakar Shekau, died in July of a wound he sustained during a fight with soldiers sometimes in June.
Shekau had on the 12th of August released a video in which he celebrated his group's invincibility.
He also berated the prowess of the Nigerian army, and how weak it is before the surging arsenal of the Boko Haram.
The military insinuated that the video was doctored by an impostor. But those who are privileged to see the video or listen to the audio swore - and they are still swearing - on their mothers' graves that the character in that clip was Shekau.
But let's even assume Shekau, a man with $7 million bounty on his head, was truly killed. How has it promoted the war on Boko Haram.
Since the declaration of Shekau's death by JTF, at least 100 persons were killed around the city of Maiduguri.
Youth Vigilance group, known as Civilian-JTF, who are currently helping the military to sniff, arrest and hand over Boko Haram suspect to soldiers,  are now being killed. At least 20 of them were murdered in the last 72 hours.
Shekau had in his video, threatened the lives of the Civilian-JTF, who are now in their thousands. The courage of being a Civilian-JTF has now become viral; every neighborhoods, villages and towns around Mauduguri are now forming their own Civilian-JTF. But they lack the armed protection of the military.

Boko Haram gunmen now disguise in military uniforms, invaded villages, gathered the locals and sort out those helping the military as Civilian-JTF. Unsuspecting villagers gladly identified themselves as Civilian-JTF and were sorted out, then summarily shot dead; others were slaughtered in their sleep. 

As a journalist covering the Boko Haram in the past 4 years, we expect Shekau to immediately issue a statement. But he hasn't done that yet.  But it should also be noted that he pointed out in that video that he would no longer join issues over his well being, the strength of his group or whether he is winning or not. According to him the military would always deceive the world by displaying some arms and claim that it was recovered from his sect. He boasted, laughing, that he would not fall into the booby-trap of the Military by responding and denying their claims. 

So, the question is; was the military playing pranks with the controversial death of Shekau? Or is the JTF, which has now been disbanded by the federal government Establishment of the Military Division-7, trying to take a last meeting credits? 

These are the questions that probe the minds of most of us, as we continue to take toll of killings of people by the seemingly invincible Boko Haram.