Why US Placed $7m Price Tag On Boko Haram Leader Shekau's Head

The United States Government has announced that it would offer a reward of $7million to anyone with credible information that can lead to the arrest of Abubakar Shekau, leader of terrorist group, Boko Haram. On June 21, 2012, the US designated Shekau a “global terrorist” under executive order 13224. A tweet by the Rewards for Justice Program, the counterterrorism rewards program of the US Department of State’s Diplomatic Security Service, said,

 “The United States Department of State offers a reward of up to $7million for information leading to the arrest of the terrorist, Abubakar Shekau, leader of Boko Haram.” Checks by Daily Trust indicates that the offer was not new, as the United States had in 2013 placed a bounty of the same sum on Shekau

Ibrahim Shekau has been the leader of terrorist group Boko Haram since 2009 when the group’s former leader, Mohammed Yusuf, was killed. The terrorist group has killed thousands and displaced over 2.3 million from their homes. The Global Terrorism Index has also at one time tagged it the world’s deadliest terror group. The group has carried out mass abductions including the kidnapping of 276 schoolgirls from Chibok in April 2014 and two years ago, abducted some schoolgirls from Dapchi in Yobe State, releasing all of them except Leah Sharibu who refused to deny her Christian faith.