Australian Boko Haram negotiator, Dr Stephen
Davis weekend explained how Abubakar
Shekau hijacked Islamist sect Boko Haram.

In an interview with Vanguard, Davis, who
accused former governor of Borno State,
Senator Ali Modu Sheriff, and an erstwhile
Chief of the Army Staff, Lt. General Azubuike
Ihejirika of being sponsors of Boko Haram
said the group terrorising the country today
was not the same as the one led by
Mohammed Yusuf, killed by the police in
2009.
“The Boko Haram we see today is not the
Jama’atu Ahlul Sunnah Lih Da’awa wal Jihad
(JAS) that was operational under Yusuf –
former JAS leader killed by the police in
2009,” Davis said.
“Shekau formed Ansaru which he used for
kidnapping and beheading victims. This
behaviour was a major departure from the
original mandate of the JAS which was to
purify Islam and return it to the exemplary life
of the Prophet. Many among the JAS
leadership are no longer active and others
have been killed. This has allowed Shekau to
take the JAS to a more extreme action and
expand the frontiers of kidnapping, bombing
and slaughtering. The Boko Haram we have
today is a much expanded Ansaru. What we
see now is not the Yusufiya which wanted
very much to settle a score with former
Governor Ali Modu Sheriff. It is Boko Haram
as a partner to ISIS and Al Shabaab.”
Davis admitted that he came to Nigeria in
April to facilitate the release of the Chibok girls
abducted by Boko Haram, but denied that he
was engaged by any party and therefore had
no obligation to report to anyone.
He claimed to have interacted with former
commanders of JAS and others close to Boko
Haram during his visit to Nigeria.
Yusuf had in a 2009 BBC interview, stated his
belief that the concept of a spherical Earth is
contrary to Islamic teaching and should be
rejected, along with Darwinian evolution, and
the concept of rain originating from water
evaporated by the sun, as he sought to purify
Islam and return it to the exemplary life of the
Prophet.
Despite being against westernization, Yusuf
was said to have had a graduate education,
spoke proficient English, lived a lavish lifestyle
and drove a Mercedes-Benz.