There was joy in the military camps on the frontlines in Borno State following the surrender of a senior member of Boko Haram, Bashir Bulabuduwaye, to Nigerian Army troops as a result of their renewed onslaught in the Lake Chad area.
According to security sources, Bulabuduwaye was Boko Haram’s chief executioner, who executed all abducted people condemned by the group.
On September 12, 2022, the terrorist and his family, including his wife and children, surrendered to troops from Operation Hadin Kai in Banki, Bama Local Government Area of Borno State.
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According to intelligence sources, Bulabuduwaye was the official who carried out death sentences on captured military men and civilians when Abubakar Shekau was the terrorist group’s leader.
The sources said the former terror kingpin had appeared in many grisly footages showing fighters aligned with Boko Haram, where he slit the throats of prisoners and shot captives after accusing them of being infidels.
“The terrorist, Bulabuduwaye and his team of executors had murdered at least 1,000 persons captured and sentenced to death,” said another military source.
The source stated that Bulabuduwaye was among the commanders, who fled last year’s invasion of the terror group’s stronghold in the Sambisa forest area by a column of Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) fighters, in May 2021 which resulted in the death of Shekau.
The source adds: “He broke away after refusing to pledge his allegiance to the Islamic State, to form a camp in Kote village in the axis of Banki, where he was hiding with other fighters,” the source said.
“He surrendered due to the sustained intelligence-led air strikes, heavy artillery bombardment and ground offensives by the Nigerian Military troops of Operation Hadin Kai.
“It was difficult for him to access food and other logistics coupled with the flooding which already ravaged most of their settlement.
“He also fears battlefield elimination by ISWAP, being one of those fingered to be eliminated for refusing to pay allegiance.”
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The Theatre Commander, North-east “Operation Hadin Kai”, Maj. Gen. Christopher Musa, recently said over 79,000 insurgents, comprising combatants and non-combatants, had so far surrendered to the military.
