Abubakar Shekau is the leader of the
militant Islamist group Boko Haram,
which has carried out a series of deadly
attacks across northern Nigeria.
Abdullahi Tasiu Abubakar from the BBC
Hausa service looks at Nigeria's most
wanted man, who has been designated
a terrorist by the US government.
The leader of the militant Islamist group
Boko Haram is said to be a fearless loner,
a complex, paradoxical man - part
intellectual, part gangster.
Fondly called imam or leader by his
followers, Abubakar Muhammad Shekau
was born in Shekau village in Nigeria's
north-eastern state of Yobe.
Some say he is 35 or 36, others that he
may be 44 - the uncertainty adds to the
myths surrounding Nigeria's most wanted
man.
The US government has offered a reward
of up to $7m (£4.6m) for information
about his location .
Radical theology student
Mr Shekau was once thought to have been
killed by security forces in 2009 - only for
him to reappear in videos posted on the
internet less than a year later as Boko
Haram's new leader.
The group's founder, Muhammad Yusuf
died in police custody, and hundreds of
others were killed during that massive
crackdown - which many blame for making
the group even more violent.
Mr Shekau has not been seen in public
since.
Instead, still images and video clips of him
are released from time to time, mostly
online, by the group's faceless "public
enlightenment department".
Mr Shekau is said to have met his
predecessor in Maiduguri, capital of Borno
state, and now Boko Haram's
headquarters, through a mutual friend,
Mamman Nur.
Nigeria's authorities say Mr Nur
masterminded the August 2011 bombing of
the UN office complex in Nigeria's capital,
Abuja.
All three were theology students - and Mr
Shekau was seen as the quietest and
perhaps the most radical of them.
"He hardly talks, he is fearless," says
Ahmed Salkida, a journalist with such good
access to Boko Haram that, at one stage,
he was suspected of being a member.
Under Mr Shekau, Boko Haram has
become more radical and carried out more
killings
He says he only escaped summary
execution by Maiduguri police after an
intelligence officer intervened.
"He is one of those who believes that you
can sacrifice anything for your belief," Mr
Salkida says.
Mr Shekau is fluent in his native Kanuri,
Hausa and Arabic languages - he does not
speak English.
"I used to joke with him that he should
teach me Arabic and I would teach him
English," Mr Salkida says.
When Mr Yusuf was killed, Mr Shekau is
said to have married one of his four wives
and adopted their children - perhaps, say
sources who do not want to be named, to
preserve Boko Haram's cohesion or
"purity".
'Chilling message'
The group has a highly decentralised
structure - the unifying force is ideology.
Mr Shekau does not communicate directly
with the group's foot soldiers - he is said
to wield his power through a few select
cell leaders, but even then contact is
minimal.
"A lot of those calling themselves leaders
in the group do not even have contact with
him," Mr Salkida says.
Mr Shekau has neither the charismatic
streak nor the oratorical skills of his
predecessor - but he has an intense
ideological commitment and ruthlessness,
say people who study the group.
"He is the leader of the more militant wing
of the group as testified by his aping of
Osama Bin Laden in his video
appearances," says Abubakar Mu'azu from
the University of Maiduguri.
Mr Shekau issued a chilling message in
one of those appearances - which
provides a major insight into what his
leadership of the group will bring.
"I enjoy killing anyone that God commands
me to kill - the way I enjoy killing chickens
and rams," he said in the video clip
released just after Boko Haram had carried
out its deadliest attack in so far in January
2012, killing more than 180 people in
Kano, northern Nigeria's largest city.
Mr Shekau is also the group's spiritual
leader - and, judging by video footage, he
seems equally comfortable delivering
sermons to his followers.
"He has a photographic memory and is
well versed in theology," Mr Salkida said.
He is nicknamed "Darul Tawheed", which
translates as a specialist in Tawheed. This
is an orthodox doctrine of the uniqueness
and oneness of Allah, which is the very
cornerstone of Islam.
But Nigeria's mainstream Muslim clerics do
not regard Mr Shekau as a scholar and
question his understanding of Islam - and
regularly condemn the bombings and
drive-by shootings committed by his
followers against anyone who disagrees
with them.
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