Falmata Abubakar, mother of the factional leader of the terrorists group, Boko Haram, Shekau said she wished she could find her son to tell him that he had done too much havoc.
She said her son had brought too many problems and she was praying to God to help change him.
Speaking in an interview with the Voice of America, the first time she spoke to the press, the mother of the notorious terrorist said much as she wished she could bare her mind, she could not find Shekau.
According to her, Shekau disappeared ever since the leader of Boko Haram, Mohammed Yusuf, brainwashed him.
Her words: “Since Shekau met with Mohammed Yusuf, I didn’t see him again.
“Yes, he’s my son and every mother loves her son, but we have different characters.
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“He brought a lot of problem to many people. Where can I meet him to tell him that these things he is doing are very bad? He brought many problems to many people, but I am praying for God to show him the good way.”
Shekau’s mother who lives in Shekau Village in Yobe State said Shekau’s father died a few years ago.
She described her husband as a local district imam before passing away a few years ago.
She also said she did not know whether her son was dead or alive.
“I don’t know if he’s alive or dead. I don’t know. It’s only God who knows. For 15 years I haven’t seen him,” she said.
She said her son left Shekau Village when he was a small boy to continue his Islamic education in Maiduguri, a centre of religious studies for hundreds of years.
Shekau was an almajiri.
In the generations-old tradition, almajirai are sent off by their parents to study the Quran in schools locally known as tsangaya, where a teacher coaches the dozens, sometimes hundreds of male students, to memorise the entire Quran.
Almajirai beg on the streets for food, and it is believed that Shekau did the same.
At some point in his studies, Shekau, according to his mother, met Mohammed Yusuf, the founder of Boko Haram, who condemned Western education and described it as sinful.
Falmata said her son was brainwashed by Mohammed Yusuf.
