Shekau vows to attack Kano Emir in new video

Tobias Lengnan Dapam with agency report

otorious Boko Haram leader, Abubakar Shekau, has threatened to attack the Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi II, in retaliation for the Emir’s call on Kano residents and other Nigerians to arm and defend themselves against the terror organization.

In a new video released weekend, Shekau said his group does not consider Emir Sanusi a true Muslim, and will attack him whenever an opportunity presents itself.

The Emir had earlier issued a call to arms after a series of deadly attacks by suspected Boko Haram militants in Kano.

Speaking at Kano’s central Mosque in October, the Emir charged the people of Kano to arm and defend themselves against the sect, which is responsible for more than 13,000 deaths in the country over the years.

Some weeks after the Emir’s call, the insurgents launched a deadly attack on the Friday Mosque adjacent to his palace, on November 28, detonating multiple bombs and shooting scores of worshippers to death.

Over 100 people died in the attack which was believed to have been targeted at Sanusi.

The Emir, who had travelled out of Nigeria at the time, visited the Mosque on his return, and re-affirmed his vow that the Kano people will not cower in the face of Boko Haram’s threats.

To assert defiance to the terrorists, the Emir directed the cleaning of the mosque and personally led a prayer in it at the dusk of the following Saturday after the attack.

In a 19-minute new video first released last Saturday, Shekau did not claim responsibility for the Mosque attack. But he said his group remains prepared to fight and kill anyone who challenges its ideology, and all non-Muslims and “fake” Muslims like the emir.

“Before I start talking to my brothers who believed in me and the religion of Allah not the religion of democracy, not that of western education, those who believed in the religion of the Quran not that of the constitution and not religion of the Emir of Kano Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, Jonathan, Obasanjo, Atiku, Babangida, Obama, Bush, Clinton, but the religion of Allah,” he said.

“Now listen to me Emir of Kano. I am talking to you and only you because of your recent utterances. Let me inform you now that you are late, you should know that you are only but the King of Kano, King of Central Bank, King of money, you are only Sanusi Lamido,” he said.

Shekau denounced the Emir’s religion as one based on constitution, idol worship and homosexuality.

“Our own government is defined as government of the Allah by the Allah and for the Allah not as you define your own government as the government of the people by the people and for the people,” he said.

Shekau said his group will fight local vigilantes and hunters, who have successfully crushed the advances of its fighters in some parts of Nigeria’s northeast.