Information revealed that troops might have killed a man they believe had been masquerading as Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau during a fierce fighting in Konduga, Borno State last week.
A statement from PRNigeria, an independent public relations agency that does consultancy work for the security agencies, said there was strong resemblance between the man killed and the one making video appearances in the name of Shekau.
"During a desperate attempt to capture Konduga in their delusion to eventually marching on and capturing Maiduguri, the man who had been mimicking late Abubakar Shekau in recent videos might have been finally killed," the statement said.
It quoted senior military and intelligence sources as saying the man was killed on September 17, 2014.
PRNigeria agency said cited as possible evidence that man killed was Shekau impostor to include "his facial marks, beards and teeth apart from the recovery by the Nigerian troops of some of the Armoured vehicles and Hilux jeeps that had featured in previous videos of the prime suspect."
Discretion advised:
It added that intelligence sources said the suspected demise of the Boko Haram leader is responsible for the scattering of the sect members in different locations in neighbouring countries, especially in Cameroon.
But they cautioned that "the process of confirming that the dead body we have is the same as that character who has been posing as Shekau is ongoing. He is definitely a prominent terrorist commander. I don't want to say anything about this yet please."
culled