Besides, the leader of Boko Haram, Abubakar Shekau yesterday debunked claims by the Nigeria Defence Headquarters that he was killed early September in Kodunga, Borno State.
During the inauguration of the panel yesterday at the Mogadishu Military Cantonment in Abuja, the president of the 13-man committee, Brig. Gen. Musa Yusuf, said that the military court would be guided by the principles of fair hearing, justice and fairness in trying the accused soldiers.
“Let me assured you that the GCM will base its decisions and findings only on the facts presented before it,’’ he said.
Yusuf appealed to the media to be objective and fair in the interest of national security, and the spirit of patriotism and justice in reporting the proceedings of the court and their outcomes.
Sixty-eight of the 97 soldiers, who include 15 officers, would be defended by activist lawyer Femi Falana (SAN).
Apart from mutiny, they are also being charged with assault, absence without leave (AWOL), house breaking, conduct prejudicial to good orders and service discipline, and offences relating to service property.
None of the accused soldiers objected to the membership of the 13-man panel as constituted.
Eighteen soldiers went through the same trial on September 16. Five were exonerated, one received a light sentence, while 12 others were sentenced to death by firing squad, amidst national and international condemnation and pressure to reduce the punishment.
After the adjournment of sitting to October 16, 2014, Falana said besides being familiar with such trials, the membership of the general court martial as constituted was fair.
Falana said: “I have taken part in a number of courts of this nature and even where we lost, we had to go on appeal and we succeeded, so, there is no cause for alarm.’’
Shekau dismissed Nigerian military’s claims of his death in a new video obtained by Agence-France-Presse (AFP) yesterday and said the militants had implemented strict Islamic law in captured towns. He was seen firing weapons in the new video.
“Here I am, alive. I will only die the day Allah takes my breath,” Shekau said, adding that his group was “running our Islamic caliphate” and administering strict Sharia punishments.
Last week, the Director of Defence Information, Maj. Gen. Chris Olukolade, said during a news conference in Abuja that the body of the insurgents’ leader was identified by the people of Kodunga.
Olukolade illustrated the defence authorities’ claim with pictures of the bullet-ridden body with Shekau’s semblance and a video of the battle in which he was killed.
He said that Shekau whose real name was Mohammed Bashir had used other names like Abacha Abdullahi Geidam and Damasack.
The Nigeria’s military said last week that Shekau was dead and that a man who had been posing as the group’s leader in the videos had been killed after fighting with troops in the far northeast.
Security analysts and the United States questioned the credibility of the military’s claim.
According to a former U.S. Ambassador to Nigeria, John Campbell, it is hard to believe Shekau was killed by Nigerian troops.
He said: “Who knows whether Shekau is alive or dead? The question may not matter much. As Boko Haram’s resurrection after the killing of its genuinely charismatic leader, Mohammed Yusuf, shows, the movement is remarkably resilient, and not dependent on a single leader.
“If Shekau is alive, as I suspect he is, evidence is scant as to what his actual role in the movement’s leadership is. Boko Haram is more than Abubakar Shekau, alive or dead.”
The new 36-minute video showed Shekau, in combat fatigues and black rubber boots, standing on the back of a pick-up truck and firing an anti-aircraft gun into the air.
Standing in front of three camouflaged vans and flanked by four heavily armed, masked fighters, he then speaks for 16 minutes in Arabic and the Hausa language widely spoken in northern Nigeria.
There was no indication of where or when the video was shot.
The heavily bearded Shekau, who appeared to be the same as those in previous clips, said the military’s claim that he was dead was propaganda.
“Nothing will kill me until my days are over… I’m still alive. Some people asked you if Shekau has two souls. No, I have one soul, by Allah,” he said, apparently reading from a script.
“It is propaganda that is prevalent. I have one soul. I’m an Islamic student.
“I’m the Islamic student whose seminary you burnt… I’m not dead,” he added, apparently referring to the destruction of the group’s mosque in the Borno State capital, Maiduguri, in 2009.
There have been two previous claims by Nigeria’s security forces that Shekau was dead. The first was in 2009 during unrest in Maiduguri and again in 2013.
Following each previous claim Boko Haram has issued denials in video messages.
Elsewhere in the new video, the terrorist group’s leader said the Boko Haram had implemented strict Islamic law in the towns that it had captured in recent weeks.
“We are running our caliphate, our Islamic caliphate. We follow the Koran. We now practise the injunctions of the Koran in the land of Allah,” he added.
The group also claimed to have shot down a Nigerian air force jet that went missing nearly three weeks ago.
But an air force spokesman said the jet was missing.
“For any group to claim they shot it down is mere propaganda and rubbish,” Air Commodore Dele Alonge told AFP.
The authorities of the Nigerian Military have said that Shekau’s claim is a hoax, noting that it is possible the video was manipulated as Shekau had been eliminated. The reaction was made available on the defence blog yesterday.
The military said: “As far as we are concerned, the individual who was appearing in video and claiming to be the leader of the terrorist group was killed in the Kondunga battle in September.
“The resemblance of the corpse and that of the eccentric character was incontrovertible. His identity was equally corroborated by people who knew him before we announced his death.”
The defence information blog said that the military responded to this new reports as circulated especially by the foreign media because “the authorities didn’t understand why despite glaring evidence shown in still and video photographs coupled with oral testimonies of surrendering and captured terrorists, some media outfits still help in the spread of propaganda that the sect leader is still alive. The Defence Headquarters is studying the claims made in the video purportedly released by the terrorists showing their leader Abubakar Shekau as dismissing his death.
“Though from immediate observation and what some online news outlets claimed to have seen, the video did not indicate when it was shot neither did it show any proof of life or currency such as screen time or date. The video also did not make any reference to anything that has happened since the impostor’s reported death.
“It is also noteworthy that the air plane said to be mentioned in the video had been missing before he was killed. It should not surprise anybody if the terrorists decide to manipulate pictures, clone another Shekau or upload a pre-recorded video all in a bid to prove invincible.”
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