Buhari condems act, describes ISWAP as psychopaths
The Islamic State in West African Province (ISWAP) has released a video showing the killing of 11 Christians abducted from Borno State some weeks earlier.
The 56-second video was released on December 26 and produced by the ISIS news agency Amaq.
The video was filmed in an unidentified outdoor area.
One captive in the middle is shot dead while the other 10 are pushed to the ground and beheaded.
Fighters of ISWAP, a Boko Haram splinter group, abducted the captives from different parts of Borno State in October.
ISIS said the killing was part of its recently declared campaign to “avenge” the death of its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi during a United States raid in Syria in October.
Ahmad Salkida, a conflict journalist known for monitoring of terrorist activities in Nigeria’s northeast, had claimed on Boxing Day that the 11 captives were executed on Christmas Day.
Salkida, who disclosed this in his website @ salkida.com, said ISWAP boasted the captives were executed as a revenge for the killings of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and Abul-Hasan Al-Muhajir in Iraq and Syria.
Meanwhile, President, Muhammadu Buhari has condemned the execution of Christians calling ISWAP fighters as “psycopaths”.
The president said in a statement that was “profoundly saddened and shocked” by ISWAP’s action stressing that “no true Muslim would be shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’ while killing innocent people.”
He assured Nigerians that “the collective security of all Nigerians” is his “major preoccupation” and “will continue to intensify efforts towards strengthening international cooperation and collaboration to break the backbone of these evil doers.”
“I am profoundly saddened and shocked by the death of innocent hostages in the hands of remorseless, godless, callous gangs of mass murderers that have given Islam a bad name through their atrocities.
“We should under no circumstances let the terrorists divide us by turning Christians against Muslims, because these barbaric killers do not represent Islam and millions of other law-abiding Muslims around the world.
“As a President, the collective security of all Nigerians is my major preoccupation and the death of an innocent Christian or Muslim distresses me.
“No true Muslim would be shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’ while killing innocent people, an evil frequently condemned by the Holy Qur’an.
“These agents of darkness are enemies of our common humanity and they don’t spare any victim, whether they are Muslims or Christians, and therefore, we shouldn’t let them divide us and turn us against one another,” he said.
