election in a new video released Tuesday, after two suicide attacks in
the northeast blamed on the Islamists killed 38 people.
"This election will not be held even if we are dead. Even if we are
not alive Allah will never allow you to do it," Shekau said in the
Hausa language, presumably referring to the polls scheduled for March
28.
(Photo: People hold signs and flags to protest against deadly raids by
Boko Haram on February 17, 2015 in Niamey. The radical sect struck
across the border into Niger for the first time on February 6,
launching attacks on Bosso and near provincial capital Diffa, both
southeastern towns near Nigeria. Boko Haram has waged an insurgency
aiming to create a hardline Islamic state in northeast Nigeria since
2009, a conflict that has claimed some 13,000 lives. AFP PHOTO)
The video appeared to be the first message released by the group on
Twitter, a sign of its changing media tactics after previous messages
were distributed to journalists on DVD.
Shekau was shown in unusual clarity in front of a solid blue
background, dressed in black and with an automatic weapon resting to
his right.
He also claimed a weekend attack in the northeast Nigerian city of
Gombe, which the military says was repelled.
The Islamist leader, declared a global terrorist by the United States
and sanctioned by the United Nations, disputed the military's account
of the Gombe clashes, claiming that his fighters overran troops and
freed insurgents from prison.
Nigeria's general election had been scheduled for February 14 but was
postponed by six weeks, with the security services saying they needed
more time to contain the violence in the northeast, Boko Haram's
stronghold.
Despite Shekau's threat, experts doubt that the Islamist rebels have
the capacity to disrupt voting nationwide, although election officials
have conceded that voting could prove impossible in parts of the
northeast.
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