Wanted terrorist Ahmed Shekau has reportedly taken refuge in Kala-Balge forest close to the Camerounian border.
He has also been sighted at Pulka village near Gwoza,in Borno State. Gwoza is a border area between Nigeria and Cameroun.
Shekau is on the run after he and his followers were dislodged from their hitherto fortress, Sambissa Forest by soldiers last week.
He appeared on Thursday appeared on a new video recording disputing claim by the military that he had been routed from Sambissa.
He boasted that the sect remained strong but did not say where he was.
He merely said: “Tactics and strategies cannot reveal our location except if Allah wills by his decree.”
The Army rubbished the video message as ‘mere terrorist propaganda.”
A report yesterday quoting military sources said Shekau appeared to have escaped in the intense battle to take over Camp Zero.
The army had said on Wednesday that soldiers who drove the terrorists out of Sambisa Forest recovered Shekau’s personal Quran and flag.
Locals said fleeing Boko Haram fighters are also flocking to the edge of Sambisa, the over 400 islets on Lake Chad and villages on the Cameroun border particularly Kala-Balge.
The islets are well protected by dense vegetation thus making aerial detection and ground operations difficult.
The fleeing terrorists are believed to have taken with them the remnants of the Chibok girls, using them as human shields.
Cameroun has already tightened up security along its border with Nigeria to stop the hoodlums.
None of the Nigerian military officers contacted yesterday was willing to speak on the issue.