By Rafiu Ajakaye
LAGOS, Nigeria (AA) - Fighting back reports of its decline, Nigeria’s Boko Haram terrorist group Saturday released video footage showing the beheading of three persons it accused of spying for the government.
“They were caught spying on behalf of the government and so their punishment is death. We have a responsibility to kill all traitors and hypocrites,” a hooded fighter said in the video filmed in Arabic and the local Hausa dialect.
Clad in coal-red attire mimicking Daesh prisoners, the “spies” -- two of them identified as Ibrahim and Abu Obaida -- confessed, probably under duress, to being embedded within the terrorist group by Nigerian authorities to gather relevant information.
The speaker, flanked by two other hooded fighters, mocked Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari, jeering, “Your spies have been caught and will die a terrible death.”
The footage appeared to have been shot by the Abu Musab Al-Barnawi faction of Boko Haram, which is affiliated with Daesh.
In other footage released Saturday, the Abubakar Shekau faction also mocked Buhari and other Lake Chad region leaders for failing to “vanquish” the militants.
“We are doing very well and remain just as active on the path of jihad. To hell with your lies,” Shekau said in the footage, specifically lashing out at Buhari, branding him the “chief of the idolaters and disbelievers”.
Shekau also threatened Nigerian army chief Yusuf Buratai and spokesman Sani Usman.
Despite the bravado on display in the video, analysts say Boko Haram appears to have been weakened considerably and are unable to launch significant attacks in the region, thereby resorting to suicide attacks on soft targets and occasional ambushes on troops in recent months.