Boko Haram: Trouble In ISWAP Camp As Leader Kills Five Council Members

Five Shura council members of the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) have been reportedly killed by the group’s new leader, Lawan Abubakar, also called Ba Lawan.

Naija News understands the Shura council is the supreme leadership council of the terrorist group.

Those killed in the ‘coup’ within the terrorist camp are also said to include the former leader of the group Abu Abdullahi Umar Al Barnawi aka Ba Idrisa.

“It is by far the most bloody and extensive move in the history of the group to behead its leadership crop in one fell swoop,” researchers and reporters on the Media and Terrorism collaborative project of Premium Times and HumAngle Media Foundation learnt at the weekend.

Quoting sources familiar with the group’s activities, it noted the execution may be the new leader’s way of consolidating his power and authority over the terrorist organization.

It will be recalled that Al-Barnawi was dethroned in February and was detained by the new leadership along with four members of the Shura who constituted his kitchen cabinet, sources said.

Though no clear date could be given for the killing, multiple sources familiar with the development said the killing of Ba Idrisa, along with Mohammad Bashir, Mustapha Jere, Ali Abdullahi, and the notorious Baba Mayinta, believed to be the power behind the throne under the Idrisa dispensation, “definitely triggered the mutiny of Wednesday 26th February into Thursday, 27th February by Ba Idrisa loyalists.

“It is unclear whether the scheme was to create a smokescreen in a process of working to an answer by swiftly ordering their summary execution but a rank of fighting troops loyal to the executed leaders instigated a rebellion against the new leaders, invading the secluded island that serves as one of their main sanctuaries, hoping to free the five men and plot their escape,” our usually multiple sources embedded in the conflicts state, said, claiming there was originally no intention to execute the leaders.

“However, in the gun exchange that ensued before dawn on Thursday, February 27, some high-profile leaders became collateral casualties, with Mustapha Krimima, the notable power-behind-the-throne and kingmaker in ISWAP escaping fatality by the whiskers and Abu Musab, a former leader, dethroned in March 2019 and son of late Mohammed Yusuf, founder of Boko Haram, believed to have been shot.”

At press time, sources had no confirmation whether he survived or was killed.

Meanwhile, Naija News previously reported that Muhammad Shuwa, the recently appointed Chief Judge of the Boko Haram terrorists has been killed in an airstrike on the hideout of the group.

Further reports into the situation has it that sustained military onslaught has resulted in a disarray of the Islamic State in West Africa Province (ISWAP) camp amidst further infighting among the insurgents.