Boko Haram leader Mohammed Yusuf. Photo from the BBC.
Mohammad Yusuf, the leader of Boko Haram, the Islamist group
responsible for the recent uprising in northern Nigeria, has been killed by
Nigerian authorities during a crackdown in the northeastern city of Maiduguri.
Police claimed Yusuf was killed after attempting to escape from custody.
"Mohammed Yusuf was killed by security forces in a
shootout while trying to escape," Moses Anegbode, the regional police
assistant inspector-general, stated on Nigerian television.
Contradicting Ahegbode's statement, Colonel Ben Ahanotu, the
operational commander assigned to defeat Boko Haram, claimed to have handed
over Yusuf to police authorities unharmed. Colonel Ahanotu maintained that
Yusuf had given himself up peacefully.
"All I know is that in the attack, I was able to pick
him up from his hide out and hand him over to police," Ahanotus said.
"But he was OK. As I got him alive, I handed him over to the
authorities."
The circumstances of Yusuf's death are controversial, as
some reporters were shown two video tapes. One shows Mr. Yusuf confessing to
police in custody while another shown on state television shows police dancing
around Mr. Yusuf's bullet-ridden body with one officer voicing his concern that
the sect leader would have been "let off the hook" if he had faced
charges in court.
Human Rights Watch activists are calling for an
investigation into Mr. Yusuf's death, and some, such as Eric Guttschuss of HRW,
are asserting that the Nigerian authorities are guilty of executing the sect
leader while in police custody.
"The extrajudicial killing of Mr. Yusuf in police
custody is a shocking example of the brazen contempt by the Nigerian police for
the rule of law," Guttschuss said.
Nigeria's Information Minister Dora Akunyili, responding to
accusations of foul play in Mr. Yusuf's death, assured there would be an
investigation into the Islamist's demise.
"(Yusuf's death is) a big issue to the good people of
this country because Nigeria believes in the rule of law, Nigeria believes in
fundamental human rights being respected".
Ms. Akunyili praised Nigerian authorities for their swift
campaign in "for being able to bring to a stop this killing and
destruction in just a few days". Entitling Mr. Yusuf a leader "in the
mold of Osama Bin Laden," she made clear that his death was a
"positive" development for Nigeria.
Yusuf was reportedly captured after escaping Boko Haram's
compound along with 300 followers. Before being discovered by police, Yusuf hid
in his parent-in-law's goat pen at their house in the northern town of Kernawa.
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