The United States Department of State is offering a reward of up to $7million (approximately N2.5billionn) for information leading to the arrest of Boko Haram leader, Abubakar Shekau.
The Rewards for Justice Programme, which is the counterterrorism rewards programme of the US Department of State’s Diplomatic Security Service, said this in a tweet on its official Twitter handle, yesterday.
The tweet reads, “The United States Department of State offers a reward up to $7million for information leading to the arrest of the terrorist, Abubakar Shekau, leader of Boko Haram”.
Shekau has been the leader of Boko Haram since the extrajudicial killing of its former leader, Mohammed Yusuf, in 2009.
It would be recalled that the terrorist group has killed tens of thousands and displaced roughly 2.3 million from their homes, and was at one time the world’s deadliest terror group, according to the Global Terrorism Index.
Boko Haram’s past targets have included suicide bombings of police buildings and the United Nations office in Abuja.
Of the 2.3 million people displaced by the conflict since May, 2013, at least, 250,000 have left Nigeria and fled into Cameroon, Chad or Niger.
The group has carried out mass abductions, including the kidnapping of 276 schoolgirls from Chibok in April, 2014, and two years ago, abducted some schoolgirls from Dapchi in Yobe State, releasing all of them except Leah Sharibu who refused to deny her Christian faith.
The Federal Government has since initiated a plan to give amnesty to repentant terrorists while the Senate is currently debating a bill to establish an agency that will cater for the repentant insurgents.
The government has on three separate occasions claimed to have killed Shekau but the Boko Haram leader has resurfaced on several videos to show that he is still alive.
Shekau is currently number eight on the list of the most wanted terrorists by the US.
Some others include: Ayman al-Zawahiri, who is the current emir of al-Qaeda and former leader of Egyptian Islamic Jihad ($25million); Sirajuddin Haqqani, who is the leader of the Haqqani Network, based in Pakistan ($10million); Abu Muhammad Al-Julani $10million, Abdullah Abdullah ($10million) wanted for his role on behalf of al-Qaeda in the 1998 US Embassy bombings.
Saif al-Adel ($10million) is believed to be a high-ranking member of the al-Qaida organization and also wanted for the 1998 US Embassy twin bombing.
Meanwhile, jihadists have killed four police officers and two civilian militiamen in an attack on a military base in Borno State, yesterday, security sources said.
Suspected Boko Haram fighters in trucks fitted with machine guns launched a dawn raid on the Army base in Damboa town, sparking intense fighting.
“We lost four mobile policemen and two civilian militia fighting alongside soldiers during the fight with the terrorists,” said a military officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Anti-jihadist militia leader, Ibrahim Liman confirmed the toll, after supporting soldiers during the attack.
Nigeria’s decade-long jihadist insurgency has killed 36,000 people and displaced two million others inside the country, and spilled into neighbouring Niger, Chad and Cameroon.
Local resident, Modu Malari said, yesterday, that the insurgents had attacked with machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades but were forced out from the town by troops after a fierce two-hour battle.
More than 50 residents were injured by shrapnel from grenades fired by the jihadists, he said, after some strayed into nearby homes.
Damboa lies on the fringe of Boko Haram’s Sambisa Forest stronghold from where the group has launched repeated attacks on villages and military posts.
In November, last year, at least, 10 Nigerian soldiers were killed and nine injured in a Boko Haram ambush in Muchima village, outside Damboa.