Not much job security, however. And you have to change your name to “Abu Qaqa,” which doesn’t mean “Father of BS,” despite the fact that that’s what Boko Haram’s spokesmen always end up purveying.
“Boko Haram kills own spokesman,” from InformationNigeria.org, April 15 (thanks to David):
The division in the dreaded Islamist sect Boko Haram deepened at the weekend with the murder of Abu Qaqa II, the spokesman of the militant group suspected to have taken over from Abu Qaqa I who was captured last January and has been in the custody of the State Security Service.
Abu Qaqa II was believed to have been killed on the instruction of the leader of the sect, Abu Shekau, for attempting to back out of their reign of terror.
He was said to have tried to denounce the sect after being trailed intensively by security agents, which forced him to change locations on several occasions.
The news of his killing coincided with the disclaimer by Vice President Namadi Sambo that the Boko Haram attacks have religious undertones.
Abu Qaqa II, whose real name is Mohammed Anwal Kontagora, was from Kontagora in Niger State. He adopted the name Abu Qaqa in February after the original Abu Qaqa, also known by many aliases, including Abu Dardaa, Mohammed Shuaibu and Abu Tiamiya, was arrested in January….
THISDAY learnt that the sect was said to be shopping for Abu Qaqa III as its new spokesman.
Security sources revealed that the division and subsequent killing of the spokesman resulted from the sect’s inability to either own up or disassociate itself from the Easter Sunday bomb blast in Kaduna that killed so many commercial motorcyclists and tea vendors.
“This again might have forced Abubakar Shekau (now looking leaner) to personally appear on You-Tube to reply to a statement credited to President Goodluck Jonathan while he was in South Korea,” the source said.
However, Sambo, in Washington D.C. at the weekend, dismissed claims that attacks by Boko Haram terrorists have a religious undertone.
Sambo, while fielding questions from Nigerians in the Diaspora at a meeting on Friday in Washington DC, said the bloodletting in the north was the handiwork of terrorists.
He also spoke on efforts being made by the federal government to restore normalcy and tackle other problems besetting Nigeria.
“The security issue that is happening in the north is not a religious problem. It is an unfortunate problem being created by some hoodlums, people that have terrorist tendencies in their mind,” stated Sambo who also disputed the claim that there was religious violence-inspired emigration in various parts of the country.
Sambo sounds as if he has been taking lessons from the Obama Administration.