Leader of Boko Haram Shekau Deposed!!

Sheikh Abubakar Shekau, has apparently been deposed by members of his own terrorist group, Boko Haram, as prelude to peace negotiations with the government of President Goodluck Jonathan.
The ouster is believed to have happened as the group – whose full name is Jama’atu Ahlul Sunnah Lih Da’awa Wal Jihad – entered into a back-channel dialogue with the government in the search for an elusive peace to a conflict that has cost Nigeria immensely.
Reports from the group that has been tasked to liaise with emissaries from the government indicate that the man who was leading the talks, Abu Zamira Mohammed, has been appointed the new leader by the organization’s Shura Council.

This has raised hopes for the moderation of a group that has close ties to al Qaeda and has fought alongside al Qaeda in the Maghreb.
Shekau was deputy leader under Boko Haram founder Imam Mohammed Yusuf who was captured in July 2009 in fighting in the northeast of Nigeria and executed by Nigeria’s Police force in what appears to have been an extrajudicial killing.
Shekau has been noticeably absent from recent public statements and is not one of the leaders who have engaged with government emissaries.

It had been presumed that Shekau chose to voluntarily leave peace discussions in the hands of Boko Haram’s leadership group.
It has now come to light that Boko Haram’s leadership group sent representatives to the capital Abuja on 25 June 2013 where they revealed to the government that Shekau was no longer their leader.
Imam Liman Ibrahim, the spiritual leader of Boko Haram, explained that the teaching of Shekau was becoming increasingly harsh and began to depart from the Holy Qu’ran.
“It was harsh, harsh, harsh”, Imam Liman said when explaining the reasons for the change of leadership.
“The beheadings, the killings, the recent death of students … this is not the way of the Holy Qu’ran. We could tolerate it no longer.”