Ibrahim Uwais, son of former chief justice of Nigeria, has been reported killed in an air strike by US-led coalition forces on a senior ISIS leader in Iraq on May 6.

Halima, Ibrahim’s wife who travelled with him to Iraq in February 2015, has reportedly called to inform her father-in-law, Mohammed, who was Nigeria’s chief justice from 1995 to 2006.

Ibrahim was believed to be in the convoy of Abu Waheeb, a senior ISIS leader dubbed “the emir of Anbar”, at the time of the US airstrike in a town near Rutba in the Anbar desert.

All in the convoy were killed in the strike, but only the identity of Waheeb had been made public by Pentagon.

Waheeb had been reported killed on several occasions, but Pentagon confirmed that the former member of Al-Qaeda in Iraq who used to appear in ISIS execution videos is now dead.

Ibrahim, 42, left Nigeria early 2015 to join ISIS in a surprise move, because he was said to have openly condemned Boko Haram for the “damage” they were doing to Islam.

He had two wives and four children at the time he left the country.

In his younger days, Ibrahim was a student of King’s College, Lagos, and went on to the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, “where he was radicalised”, according to a former student of Queen’s College, Lagos. Ibrahim later dropped out of the university and went into full-time business in his early 20s

While his elder wife was the head of a private school in Abuja, the younger worked with the Debt Management Office (DMO).

A family source confirmed that Ibrahim left Nigeria with his family early February 2015 “without a word”.

When the retired Justice Uwais was alerted on the disappearance of his son and his family, he became apprehensive and started to make investigations, eventually reporting to the security agencies.

The Turkish embassy in Abuja was compelled to disclose the details of Ibrahim’s movement through a court injunction, and it confirmed issuing visas to Ibrahim and members of his family.

•Adapted from a story in TheCable. Photo shows ISIS flag.

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