TWENTY THREE year-old Nigerian, Umaru Farouk Abdul Mutallab, on Christmas day, put Nigeria on the global map of terrorism, when he attempted to blow up a Northwest Airlines Flight 253, carrying 278 passengers and 11 crew members from Amsterdam, as it prepared to land in Detroit, just before noon .
The attempted suicide attack by Mutallab, said to be son of a former chairman of First Bank Nigeria Plc, who is also the current Chairman of Nigeria’s first Islamic bank, Jaiz International Plc. Alhaji Umaru Mutallab, led to injuries of some passengers aboard the aircraft belonging to a United States airliner, Delta Airlines. Mutallab said to have confessed to having a link to the notorious terrorist group, al-Qaeda in Yemen, was also said to have suffered some burns, and was hospitalised in Detroit, Michigan.
Consequently, Vice President Goodluck Jonathan yesterday, directed Nigerian security agencies to commence full investigation into the incident.
The Detroit incident comes on the heels of the Parcel Bomb explosion that rocked part of Superscreen, a television house in Lagos, on Tuesday. The bearer of the parcel bomb, who suffered injuries when one of the bombs exploded in his hand, is said to be receiving treatment in a hospital under the watchful eyes of the Police, who have since commenced investigation.
Mutallab, according to the CNN, had been officially charged by the American government yesterday.
The suspect – an engineering student at University College of London, according to ABC News and NBC News – began his trip Thursday from Nigeria. It was not clear yesterday, whether Mutallab underwent security screening in Amsterdam or merely changed planes there.
His action drew rage across the globe, with many airports devising new means of security. The news of the Mutallab indeed dominated international media reports yesterday; thus dragging the already unimpressive reputation of Nigeria into further jeopardy.
Reacting to the development yesterday in Abuja, Minister of Information and Communications, Prof. Dora Akunyili, said that Nigeria as a nation abhor all forms of terrorism and assured that Nigerian security agencies would cooperate with the American authorities in the on-going investigations.
It was difficult to reach the father of Mutallab yesterday, but reports said he had been invited by the Nigeria Police Authorities; and had already made a statement.
An unidentified family member was quoted yesterday as saying, that young Mutallab’s father, Alhaji Umaru Mutallab, “a former minister and chairman of First Bank in Nigeria, is shocked that his son was even allowed to fly to the U.S.” The top Nigerian banker was said to have alerted US authorities about his son’s ‘extreme religious views’ months ago.
“The dad was meeting with security officials to discuss his son, identified as Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab, 23.The younger Mutallab was not on any no-fly list when he flew from Nigeria to Detroit through Amsterdam.”
The First Bank Plc, where the father was a Chairman said they had ‘no comment’ and pleaded to be left out of the matter. The bank’s head of Coporate Communications, Celine Loader, said on phone that there was “no official reaction yet. We are still investigating the matter”.
According to New York Times, young Mutallab, who was linked to the al-Qaeda, had tried to set off an explosive device aboard a U.S. passenger plane as it approached Detroit on Friday, but was overpowered by passengers and crew, as the aircraft landed safely. The suspect suffered extensive burns and was taken into custody. The passengers, two of whom suffered minor injuries, disembarked safely from the Delta Air Lines plane, which had departed from Amsterdam.
A statement signed by the minister read in part, “The Federal Government of Nigeria received with dismay the news of an attempted terrorist attack on a US airline, we want to state very clearly that as a nation, and we abhor all forms of terrorism.
“The Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Dr Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, has directed Nigerian security agencies to commence full investigation of the incident. While steps are being taken to verify the identity of the alleged suspect and his motives, our security agencies will cooperate fully with the American authorities in the on-going investigations. Nigerian government will be providing updates as more information becomes available.”
Unconfirmed reports, yesterday, suggested that security agents might have invited Dr Umaru Abdul Mutallab, father of young Mutallab, for questioning over the incident. But efforts, by our reporters, to reach either the former chairman of First Bank or the security agencies to confirm the report of the invitation was not successful.
Meanwhile, top aviation chiefs, made up of the Director-General of the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority, Dr. Harold Demuren, the Managing Director of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), Richard Aisuebeogun, Director of Airports Security, and other top security officials, yesterday held a closed door meeting in Lagos to unravel how Farouk Abdul Mutallab, smuggled explosives, with the intention to blow up an aircraft belonging to United States airliner, Delta Airlines.
According to reports, the attempted terrorist attack on began with a pop and a puff of smoke – sending passengers scrambling to subdue a Nigerian man who claimed to be acting on orders from al-Qaeda to blow up the airliner, officials and travelers said.
Passengers said they smelled smoke, saw a glow, and heard what sounded like firecrackers. At least one person climbed over others and jumped on the man, who officials say was trying to ignite an explosive device.
“It sounded like a firecracker in a pillowcase,” said Peter Smith, a passenger from the Netherlands. “First there was a pop, and then (there) was smoke.”
Smith said one passenger, sitting opposite the man, climbed over passengers, went across the aisle and tried to restrain the man. The heroic passenger appeared to have been burned.
“Afterward, the suspect was taken to a front-row seat with his pants cut off and his legs burned. Multiple law enforcement officials also said the man appeared badly burned on his legs, indicating the explosive was strapped there. The components were apparently mixed in-flight and included a powdery substance, multiple law enforcement and counterterrorism officials said.
Since September 11, 2001 when terrorists, acting for al-Qaida blew up World Trade Centre with passenger aircraft, the world took a proactive step to ensure maximum security, both before and after take-off, but this recent incident shocked the whole world.
Demuren, in a telephone interview with The Guardian yesterday, confirmed the meeting, but declined to give further insight into the outcome of the meeting.
He simply said that they had been able to confirm that the alleged terrorist was a Nigerian, saying, “I cannot say more than that. The Federal Government will issue a statement on that.”
Efforts by The Guardian to know what the authority intends to do to tighten security at the nation airports met the brick wall, as he hurriedly said, “No comment and thank you very much.”
A source, who spoke to The Guardian, said that the meeting was called to appraise security lapses at the airport and ways to block all the lapses that might aid the carriage of explosives or dangerous weapons on board airliners.
It was not clear as at press time whether the suspect actually carried his explosives through the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos to Amsterdam, en-route Detroit.
Mutallab’s itinerary shows that he boarded in Nigeria and went through Amsterdam en route Detroit.
Dutch Airline, KLM said yesterday that the connection in Amsterdam from Lagos, Nigeria, to Detroit involves a change in carrier and a change in aircraft.
Schiphol Airport, one of Europe’s busiest with a heavy load of transit passengers from Africa and Asia to North America, strictly enforces European security regulations including only allowing small amounts of liquid in hand luggage that must be placed inside clear plastic bags.
Meanwhile, the White House in its reaction said it believed it was an attempted act of terrorism and stricter security measures were quickly imposed on airline travel.
Dutch anti-terrorism authorities said the U.S. has asked all airlines to take extra precautions on flights worldwide that are bound for the United States.
One law enforcement official said the man claimed to have been instructed by al-Qaeda to detonate the plane over U.S. soil, but other law enforcement officials cautioned that such claims could not be verified immediately, and said the man may have been acting independently – inspired but not specifically trained or ordered by terror groups.
Intelligence and anti-terrorism officials in Yemen said they were investigating claims by the suspect that he picked up the explosive device and instructions on how to use it in that country.
A spokesman for the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, Akin Olukunle, said all passengers and their luggage are screened before boarding international flights. He also said the airport in Lagos cleared a U.S. Transportation Security Administration audit in November.
“We had a pass mark,” Olukunle said. “We actually are up to standards in all senses.”