The Late
Yusuf
Abubakar Shekau
He is the leader of Boko Haram.
He is said to be a fearless loner, a complex,
paradoxical man - part intellectual, part gangster.
Fondly called imam or leader by his followers,
Abubakar Muhammad Shekau was born in Shekau
village in Yobe State.
Some say he is 34 or 35, others that he may be 43 - the
uncertainty adds to the myths surrounding Nigeria’s
most wanted man.
Shekau was once thought to have been killed by
security forces in 2009 - only for him to reappear in
videos posted on the internet less than a year later as
Boko Haram’s new leader. He has not been seen in
public since. Instead, still images and video clips of
him are released from time to time, mostly online, by
the group’s faceless “public enlightenment
department”.
He is said to have met his predecessor in Maiduguri,
capital of Borno State through a mutual friend,
Mamman Nur, who is said to have masterminded the
August 2011 bombing of the UN office complex in
Abuja.
Under Shekau, Boko Haram has become more radical
and carried out more killings. He is fluent in his native
Kanuri, Hausa and Arabic languages - he does not
speak English.
He is said to have married one of Mohammed Yusuf’s
four wives and adopted their children.
Shekau does not communicate directly with the
group’s foot soldiers - he is said to wield his power
through a few select cell leaders, but even then,
contact is minimal.
He is nicknamed “Darul Tawheed”, which translates as
a specialist in Tawheed. This is an orthodox doctrine
of the uniqueness and oneness of Allah, which is the
very cornerstone of Islam.

Kabiru Sokoto was arrested in February by the State
Security Service (SSS). He was earlier arrested by the
police, and ‘allowed’ to escape. His escape led to the
dismissal of Deputy Commissioner of Police Zakari
Biu. He was declared wanted, with a N5million
ransom on his head before the SSS re-arrested him at
Mutum in Gassol Local Government Area of Taraba
State. He has been with the SSS. He is believed to be
giving vital information which has been helping
understand how the Boko Haram sect works.
His real name is Kabiru Abubakar Dikko. The 29-
year-old was born to the family of Umaru Jabbi of
Gagi village in Sokoto South Local Government Area
on May 9, 1983.
After the death of his father, his uncle, Abubakar
Dikko, adopted him and gave him his name. He
completed his secondary education in 2003 and was
admitted to the College of Nursing and Midwifery,
Sokoto, where he was said to have been a truant with
extremist tendencies.

Abu Qaqa
The SSS is also holding a man it said was the
spokesman of the sect, Abu Qaqa. But Boko Haram
has insisted that the man in the SSS custody is Abu
Darda, its head of public enlightenment. He was
arrested in February and has been with the agency
since then.
The sect said: “The person that was arrested was Abu
Darda and not Abu-Qaqa. I am Abul Qaqa, the
spokesman for the Jama’atu Ahlis Sunnati
Lidda’awati Wal Jihad. Abu Darda is the head of the
Lagina (Dept) of public enlightenment and not the
spokesman.
“The arrest of Abu Darda is an outright deception and
betrayal by the Nigerian government and security
agents. They proclaimed dialogue and are doing the
opposite. His arrest has proved to us that they were
waiting for us to avail ourselves so that they can arrest
us.
“We purposely sent Abu Darda to Kaduna to discuss
with some key government functionaries on the issue
of dialogue. Indeed, he had started talking to them but
unknown to him, they (had) directed some security
agents to trail him and arrest him.
“This is exactly what happened. He volunteered to
present himself for the dialogue but was betrayed.
Everybody knows our capability and tactics of
operation. It is evidently clear that none of our
members could be caught on a platter of gold and
without confrontation.”
In May, his father was reported killed by the sect in
Maiduguri because of his alleged revelations on the
group to the SSS.

Suleiman Mohammed
He was arrested in May along with his wife and five
children in the Farawa, Kano.
His arrest came hours after blasts and gunfire rocked
Maiduguri, the Borno State capital.
Mohammed has been described as Boko Haram’s head
of operations in Kano under the group’s suspected
leader, Abubakar Shekau.
Three pistols, a rifle, 1,000 rounds of ammunition and
10 Improvised Explosive Devices (IDEs) were
recovered from his house.

Ayuba Usman
He was arrested in May at his shop in a market in
Kano following information from suspected Boko
Haram members arrested in raids.
High profile suspects allegedly said Usman was
providing combustible chemicals used in the
manufacture of IEDs (improvised explosive devices)
for attacks on innocent people in the city.
Thirty-five drums of chemicals of 240 litres each and a
dozen bags of combustible items were recovered
during the raid on his shop in one of the markets in
Dala Local Government Area of the state.

Ibrahim Mohammed Ali
A prime suspect in the coordinated attacks on
Christian worshippers at the old campus of Bayero
University, Kano in which 20 persons, including 2
professor, were killed. He was arrested in May.
Ali, a diploma holder from Ramat Polytechnic,
Maiduguri, Borno State, was nabbed by security
operatives who had been on his trail.
The JTF arrested him after surrounding a house
located at Bubugaje, Sharada Phase III Industrial
Layout in Kumbotso Local Government Area, where he
was hiding.
There was a three-hour shoot-out between the JTF
and suspected members of the sect before he was
arrested.
via The Nation
http://www.thenationonlineng.net/2011/index.php/
news/51170-who-is-who-in-boko-haram.html