I Bombed Lagos, Stop Lying –Boko Haram Commander Shekau

If you hide it from people you can’t hide it from Allah. I ordered the bombing of Lagos; says Shekau. Leader of the deadly Islamic sect, Boko Haram, has claimed responsibility for June 25 bomb attacks in Lagos and Abuja which claimed several lives and caused serious damage.

Five persons died in the Lagos explosion which occurred very close to Folawiyo tank farm while that of Abuja which went off in a shopping mall killed 22 persons.

Boko Haram leader, Abubakar Shekau, in a 16-minute video obtained by AFP  also mocks the social media and protest campaign, #BringBackOurGirls, which emerged after the Islamists kidnapped more than 200 schoolgirls on April 14 from Chibok. 

The girls, whose abduction has drawn unprecedented attention to Boko Haram’s five-year rebellion, are not pictured in the video, which was given to AFP through similar channels as past messages...

One previous recording showed more than 100 of the hostages, some of whom are Christian, reciting Muslim prayers. Shekau also said his loyalists carried out twin car bombings in May in Jos and a June attack at a college in Kano.

Shekau claims Abuja, Lagos bomb attacks
“We were the ones who detonated the bomb in filthy Abuja,” Shekau said in the video referring to a June 25 attack on a popular shopping centre in Abuja that killed at least 22 people. Later that day a huge explosion also rocked the Apapa, which the authorities blamed on a cooking gas explosion, with no casualties.

“A bomb went off in Lagos. I ordered the bomber who went and detonated it,” Shekau says in the video, which shows him flanked by at least 10 gunmen in front of two armoured personnel carriers and two pick-up trucks. “You said it was a fire incident,” he added. “Well, if you hide it from people you can’t hide it from Allah.”

Shekau, in boasting about the Lagos attack, incorrectly identifies the Governor of Lagos State, taunting Adams Oshiomhole, who is in fact the Governor of Edo State. Lagos State is governed by Babatunde Fashola.

Declared a global terrorist by the United States and sanctioned by the UN Security Council, Shekau is thought to have previously claimed credit for attacks that he did not directly order.

Near the beginning of the video, Shekau calls several of the world’s most prominent Islamist extremists his “brethren.”

“May Allah protect you,” he said, listing IS chief, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, Al-Qaeda head Ayman al-Zawahiri, Taliban leader Mullah Omar and several others.

Speaking in English, Shekau recited the BringBackOurGirls slogan used by activists to press for the release of schoolgirls.

“BringBackOurGirls… bring back our army,” he says, in what may be reference to a previous offer that the hostages could be freed if the Goodluck Jonathan governor releases Boko Haram fighters held in custody.