Emir of Gwoza’s palace becomes Boko Haram’s Islamic Caliphate headquarters

There are reports that the Boko Haram insurgents had converted the palace of the Emir of Gwoza in Borno State to their operational headquarters. They are said to have started coordinating their attacks from the palace.

Boko Haram had last Thursday, taken over Gwoza town and mounted their flag, and on Sunday, declared the town an Islamic Caliphate in their control.

Leader of the sect, Abubakar Shekau, had in a video obtained by the Agence France Presse (AFP) made the announcement and vowed that the group would not leave the town.

In the video, his men were seen carrying out attacks.

 His words: “Thanks be to Allah who gave victory to our brethren in the town of Gwoza and made it part of the Islamic caliphate. By the grace of Allah, we will not leave the town. We have come to stay.
“Allah used us to captured Gwoza; Allah is going to use Islam to rule Gwoza, Nigeria and the whole world.”
"We did not do it on our own. Allah used us to captured Gwoza, Allah is going to use Islam to rule Gwoza, Nigeria and the whole world”
"Some of these messages are preached so that people can repent, some of the messages are advises, while in another way the message is a display of the way we use the power of Allah so you can fight him and that is it," he added.


The video also showed about twenty men lying face down who were executed

Emir of Gwoza, Muhammed Timta, had on August 12, fled the town when Boko Haram terrorists came after him. They however killed his wife. Boko Haram subsequently reportedly installed a new Emir to govern the town.