Boko Haram: ‘We did not kill General Shuwa”

Nigeria’s dreaded insurgency group, Boko Haram, has denied involvement in the killing Major General Muhammed Shuwa, a Nigerian civil war veteran and member of the Board of Trustees of the All Nigeria Peoples party.

Shuwa, was shot in his home in Maiduguri, capital of Borno state, on Friday, along with one of his guests.

Lt.Col Sagir Musa, spokesman for the Joint Military Task Force in the state, said in a statement that the Boko Haram were the killers and that the attackers entered the house as Shuwa was hosting guests before the Friday prayers and opened fire, he said.

But today, the new Boko Haram spokesman Mohammed Ibn Abdulaziz claimed in a telephone conversation with reporters in Maiduguri: “We have no hands in the killing of Gen Shuwa. We didn’t have problem with the man,” he said.

The attack came a day after Abdulaziz said the group is ready to start talks with the Nigerian government and there were reports of the massacre of about 40 youngsters suspected by Nigerian troops as sympathisers of the sect.