Why $7 Million Bounty Will Not Help Capture Shekau – Investigations

The $7 million bounty placed on the head of the Boko Haram leader, Abubakar Shekau by the United States may be largely ineffective in drawing anyone to whisper on him because of the failure of the US and Nigerian governments to honour past bounties placed on the heads of other captured or executed leaders of the terrorist group.

PR Nigeria reports that sources were quick to remind that there is nothing new with the latest action as the same bounty has been declared by the US seven years ago and that Nigerian military has also failed to fulfil their end of the bargain in previous attempts.

“There is not much difference between the US bounty of 2013 and this recent one. It is just like a reminder and President Donald Trump is using it to launder his image on the fight on terrorism,” a source said.

Also, it was revealed that a certain military officer and personnel of the Department of State Services (DSS) were denied their ransom rewards after helping to capture and eliminate some Boko Haram leaders who had bounties placed on their heads.

PRNigeria was informed that “a certain operation in 2015 led to the arrest of Bashir Aketa in Gombe State. Nothing was paid being that the information came from security personnel from the DSS. Bashir was on the list of 19 Boko Haram leaders declared wanted on November 23, 2012, by the Nigerian military”.

Here is a chronology of the bounty declarations on Shekau and other Boko Haram leaders:

•November 23, 2012: The then Joint Task Force (JTF) ‘Operation Restore Order’ placed a bounty of N50 million on Shekau and different amounts for 18 others. Within six months all the 17 had been killed with the exception of Shekau and Khalid Albarnawee. Also Bashir Aketa was arrested and the military officer who was vital to his arrest and that of the then one of a most dreaded terrorist leader, Adam Kambar, was not rewarded with the N20 million bounty. ” The created doubts and lack of sincerity in the system and the whole arrangement,” a source stressed.

•June 2013: The USA placed a bounty on Shekau $7 million, Albarnawee Khalid $5 million and Adam Kambar $5 million (who was neutralized three months earlier by a team of brilliant Nigerian Army Officers).

•February 2018: The Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lt-Gen. Tukur Buratai, in a blizzard twist placed a N3 million on Shekau, which is a downgrade from the N50 million bounty by the military authorities six years earlier.

•March 3, 2020: In also another curious twist, the US Department of State placed another or a renewal earlier bounty of $7 million on Shekau.

Despite these series of reward packages, tracking and eliminating Shekau has remained an uphill task because, according to intelligence sources, “he is in the jungle and the Nigerian military has no capacity to reach him and the US has no Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Nigeria to provide such”.

The implication, PRNigeria gathered, was that even if the information is provided to the military (as always), they can’t go beyond the fringes of Sambisa forest.

“The issue is not information but capability. Even on the streets of Maiduguri, you will get information on all Boko Haram locations, including that of Shekau and other leaders. But the military cannot do anything about it.. No capability to reach objectives, they sometimes wait to ‘repel attacks,” the source regretted.

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