INFORMATION NIGERIA » umar farouk abdul mutallab

Senate Gives U.S. Ultimatum On Searches

Information Nigeria — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 03:01:01 +0000

The Senate yesterday issued an ultimatum to the United States of America to de-list Nigeria from its list of countries that are of special “interest” in terrorism matters or face possible counter action when the legislature resumes next week.

Briefing newsmen on the listing of Nigeria as one of 14 countries from where travelers to the US will face thorough screening, Chairman Senate Committee on Information and Media said the decision of the US government was “hasty” and “unacceptable.”

Senator Eze said, “I am referring specifically to the issue of America in listing Nigeria as one of the 14 countries to be placed under watch and I am speaking on behalf of the Senate and the Senate President to say categorically that we are very unhappy about the development and that when we resume, we are going to take this matter very seriously if America has not taken Nigeria off from that list. We also want to advice America that it is in their own interest to ensure that they conduct this matter very well in a manner that will not resolve into a diplomatic row between Nigeria and America.”

He said the action of the US government towards resolving the matter in the next few days shall determine whether or not Nigeria will continue to have diplomatic ties with it.

“This is not how diplomacy is conducted and we are going to engage all our diplomatic gears to ensure that we either have a relationship with America or we do not. And I think that it is most unfair given the kind of relationship that has existed between Nigeria and America, for them to jump to this type of conclusion without even adequate consultations with all the authorities in Nigeria. This not acceptable to us and we are going to do whatever we can as a nation to prove to America that we will not take this,” Senator Eze said.
He blamed the US government and security outfits for laxity in the Christmas Day attempted bombing by a Nigerian, saying “the American President has himself clearly admitted that this is a failure of the system and the manpower of America and I do not see where Nigeria comes in here. We have also watched with keen interest several other breaches that have taken place since this boy’s attempt. There was an uninvited guest who went to the White House, he and his wife were found, that was not a Nigerian. America should look inward and search their souls. Something is wrong with their system and they should not punish ordinary Nigerians who are law abiding and good international citizens for the failure and irresponsibility of the American operatives. Nigeria will not take that.”

He said the Senate could be forced to take a drastic decision on the bi-lateral relations between the two countries should US refuse to delist Nigeria from the terror list adding, “If the situation is still there, it is going to be one of the major issues we are going to tackle and the Senate President has told me categorically that he is very unhappy about it on behalf of the leadership of the Senate, and being the Chairman of the National Assembly, it means also the National Assembly.”

Twenty three year old Nigerian Umaru Faruk Abdulmutallab was alleged on Christmas Day to have attempted to bomb an airliner over the American city of Detroit.
SOURCE: Dailytrust.com

FG kicks as US classifies Nigeria ‘security risk state’

Information Nigeria — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 01:45:18 +0000

Tough times await Nigerian travellers to the United States as the US Transportation Security Administration has listed Nigeria and nine other countries as ‘security risk states.’

The other countries similarly categorised are Yemen, Afghanistan, Algeria, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Somalia.

A statement on Sunday night by the TSA, the agency responsible for air security measures, also listed Cuba, Iran, Sudan and Syria as ‘sponsors of terrorism.’

It said that air travellers with Nigerian passports and any of the above listed nations would henceforth face thorough screening.

This development is sequel to the aborted Christmas Day bombing attempt on a Detroit-bound US Delta Airline aircraft by a Nigerian, Mr. Umar AbdulMutallab.

But the Federal Government, in a swift reaction, described the categorisation of Nigeria among ‘security risk states’ as unfair.

The Minister of Information and Communications, Prof. Dora Akunyili, in a statement on Monday said the behaviour of the bomb suspect did not reflect that of Nigerians.

Akunyili said, “It is unfair to include Nigeria in the US list for tighter screening because Nigerians do not have terrorists tendency. AbdulMutallab‘s act was a one-off thing. He was not influenced in Nigeria. He was not recruited or trained in Nigeria. He was not supported whatsoever in Nigeria.

“AbdulMutallab‘s behaviour is not reflective of Nigerians and should therefore not be used as a yardstick to judge all Nigerians. It is unfair to discriminate against over 150 million people because of the behaviour of one person.

“AbdulMutallab was a well-behaved child from a responsible family who developed the ugly tendency to do what he tried to do because of his exposure outside the shores of Nigeria. Nigerians are peace-loving and happy people. We were even voted as the happiest people on earth.”

Already, the National Security Adviser, Gen. Sarki Muktar, has called an emergency meeting of all security chiefs for today (Tuesday) over the US statement.

It was gathered on Monday night that the meeting would deliberate and advise the government on how to respond to the US position on Nigeria.

The TSA had said in its statement that passengers from Nigeria and other affected countries would be subjected to random security searches. Such searches include advanced explosive detection or imaging scans.

It said, “Today(Sunday), the TSA issued new security directives to all United States and international air carriers with inbound flights to the U.S. effective January 4, 2010.

“The new directive includes long-term, sustainable security measures developed in consultation with law enforcement officials and our domestic and international partners.

“Because effective aviation security must begin beyond our borders, and as a result of extraordinary cooperation from our global aviation partners, TSA is mandating that every individual flying into the US from anywhere in the world travelling from or through nations that are state sponsors of terrorism or other countries of interest will be required to go through enhanced screening.

“The directive also increases the use of enhanced screening technologies and mandates threat-based and random screening for passengers on US bound international flights.”

It was also learnt on Monday that the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority has already directed Delta and Arik Airlines, the two airlines that fly directly to the US, to ensure compliance with all secondary screening and profiling of passengers after routine checks on them.

In addition, Delta Airline (belonging to Northwest Airlines) and Arik Airline have been directed to ensure secondary screening of passengers bound for the US.

A top official of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria told one of our correspondents on Monday that the NCAA and FAAN also issued directives to both airport and airline managers in response to the TSA’s fresh security measures.

According to the source, the airlines have also been directed to advise their passengers to arrive at the airports at least three hours before take off in order to go through all necessary security checks.

They are also to carry out 100 per cent search on passengers and luggage.

It was learnt that NCAA threatened to ground any airline that failed to implement the new security measures.

Our source said, “Both the NCAA and FAAN have directed airlines to ensure profiling of passengers. The airlines have also been directed to ensure secondary screening of passengers. Profiling include getting passengers’ phone numbers and residential addresses. If there is any error anywhere, you stop the passenger from flying.

“This is an era of aggressive screening. If you don’t comply, you don’t fly. You can go and start your own airport. Now, there is no sacred cow. Even ministers will be subjected to these checks.”

The NCAA Director-General, Dr. Harold Demuren, did not pick his calls when our correspondent called his mobile telephone on Monday.

But a US-based Nigerian professor in Michigan, Dr. Steve Nwabuzor, told US-based Nigerian news agency, Empowered Newswire, that AbdulMutallab’s action would further subject Nigerian-Americans to stricter searches and questioning.

Meanwhile, there were indications on Monday that the US Embassy in Nigeria may have been refusing a large number of visa applications by Nigerians.

Investigations revealed that majority of those who had appointments with the embassy as well as those who applied via drop-box since the December 25 incident have had their applications rejected.

When contacted by one of our correspondents, an official of the Information Unit of the embassy in Abuja, who did not wish to be named, denied the development.

“There has not been any change in the visa approval indices of the embassy,” he said.
SOURCE: punchng.com

How Yemen Frustrated Mutallab's Attempt to Find Son

Information Nigeria — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 22:30:46 +0000

Fresh facts emerging on the alleged attempt by 23-year-old Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab to blow up a passenger plane in the United States on Christmas day showed that the attempt would have been averted if the Yemeni government had not frustrated the attempts by the suspect’s father, Alhaji Umar Mutallab to visit the country in search of his lost son.

A source close to the security agencies investigating the attempt from the Nigerian end, hinted THISDAY that about three months ago, the former chairman of First Bank of Nigeria Plc, Alhaji Mutallab applied at different times for Yemeni visa but was turned down.

The elder Mutallab, a prominent banker and muslim who is the chairman designate of the yet to be established Jaiz Islamic Bank ordinarily would have no problem obtaining travel permits into any country in the world, including the US, but was refused visa by the Yemeni embassy.

The source said after the attempted bombing suspect, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who was pursuing a post graduate degree in the United Arab Emirates visited Yemen to participate in a short course in Arabic studies with the permission of his parents, he later wrote to them that he would like to embark on another five year study programme in Yemen.

At this point, the elder Mutallab rejected his son’s request and insisted he should return to Dubai or UAE to complete his masters degree programme.

He also threatened that if Farouk did not comply with the instruction, he would stop funding him.

However, Farouk, the source said, told the father that the refusal to provide funds for his programmne would not make him change his plans. He later sent a message to the father that he was severing his links with the family. He said the message would be the last time any member of the family would have any contact with him as they would henceforth not be able to get in touch with him.

Farouk then went ahead to discontinue the use of the telephone numbers he was using from Dubai and the one he used to contact the father when he got to Yemen.

It was the last message Farouk sent to the father which got him worried and led to his desperate moves to visit Yemen in search of his son.

After several attempts to get entry visa to Yemen, the ex-First Bank chief then decided to pursue alternative means of seeking to search for his son and repatriating him back home.

He then contacted the American Embassy in Abuja and the National Intelligence Agency (NIA), the foreign arm of the nation’s intelligence network for help.

Surprisingly, both the embassy and the NIA did not seem to have taken serious action on his report. The lack of concerted effort to act on the report and the refusal of the Yemeni authorities to allow Alhaji Mutallab enter its shores to search for the young man who he suspected had fallen into the hands of people with extreme tendencies in Islam eventually led to the attempt to blow up the North-west Delta Airliner with almost 300 passengers and crew members.

However, the Ghanaian aviation authorities yesterday responded to the information released on Thursday by its Nigerian counterparts that Farouk only spent 27 minutes in Nigreria on his way from Ghana before boarding a KLM airline plane to Amsterdam on Christmas eve.

Reuters yesterday quoted a Ghanaian airport official Yaw Kwakwa, deputy managing director of Ghana Airports, who said Farouk may not have begun his journey from Ghana.

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab had been thought to have started his journey on December 24, taking a Lagos-Amsterdam flight, but Nigeria said on Thursday he had first flown from Accra to Lagos.

“The fact that he possibly boarded a Virgin Nigeria flight from Accra to Lagos does not mean he began his journey in Ghana as is being claimed by some officials in Nigeria,” said Kwakwa.

Information Minister Dora Akunyili said on Thursday the suspect took a Virgin Nigeria flight from Accra to Lagos before boarding a KLM flight from there to Amsterdam. He began his journey in Ghana and spent less than 30 minutes at Lagos airport, she said.

He changed planes at Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport and flew to Detroit. Nigerian and Dutch officials have said he passed through the normal security screenings at Lagos and Schiphol airports.

“We realised (he) probably could have been in Ghana … so we heightened our security checks, but that does not mean he began his plans from Ghana,” Kwakwa said.

Ghana tightened security checks at Accra’s Kotoka International Airport the day after Abdulmutallab’s arrest, Kwakwa said, but no decision had been taken on whether to use body scanners.

“Body scanners are effective tools, but apart from the cost, there are issues such as the infringement of privacy still around its use, so we want to weigh all the options before deciding whether we should buy it or not,” he said.

Abdulmutallab, 23, has been charged with trying to blow up Northwest Airlines flight 253 as it approached Detroit from Amsterdam with almost 300 people on board.

Meanwhile, THISDAY’s continuing background checks on Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab turned up an interesting angle to his personae.

For instance, a neighbour of the Mutallabs, Kabiru Suleiman, who was also a secondary school mate of Farouk at Essence International School, said despite Farouk’s strong views about religion, he admired a certain female school mate, Asmau when they were in JSS One (seventh grade).

He said: “I know he liked her and he spoke about her a lot to me. When he was leaving for British International School in Togo, he told me to take good care of her.”

However, when THISDAY contacted Asmau at her family residence on Ohinoyi Road, Kaduna, although she admitted that Farouk was an old school mate, she said she didn’t know whether or not Farouk liked her because he never told her so.

“Yes, we were classmates in JSS One. We shared the same seat in the class. He never told me he had any feelings for me. We were just classmates and spent only the first term together before he left for the British International School,” she said.
SOURCE: thisdayonline.com

Terror suspect: Nigeria, Ghana, SSS, NIA trade blame

Information Nigeria — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 04:29:15 +0000

The blame game that has characterized United States’ investigations into the alleged attempt by a Nigerian to explode a bomb on a US-bound passenger plane has moved to Africa.

In the wake of the event, American security agencies have been trading blame, with each agency claiming that the other could have thwarted the attack if it had acted sooner.

On Friday, on the continent, Ghana and Nigeria also got locked in an argument over where the suspect began his journey to Amsterdam. As this evolved, a report monitored on British Broadcasting Corporation on Friday also said that the State Security Service and the National Intelligence Agency were also trading blame on the incident.

Since the attempt was foiled, it had been widely assumed that the alleged bomber, 23-year-old Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, began his journey in Nigeria. But speaking during the week, the Minister of Information, Mrs Dora Akunyili, said that Abdulmutallab began his journey in Accra, Ghana and only spent 30 minutes at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport before he boarded a plane to Amsterdam.

Akunyili, who also defended Nigeria’s security procedures, had said that the suspect’s passport was scanned on entry into Nigeria at 2008 (1908GMT), and again, as he boarded the flight to Amsterdam, at 2035.

“He was able to connect that fast because he was not checking in any luggage,” she said.

Other Nigerian officials had said earlier that the suspect’s round-trip ticket was bought in Accra for $2,831 in cash on Dec. 16.

But a senior Ghanaian government official told the BBC that Abdulmutallab spent no fewer than three hours at the MMIA, accusing Nigeria of trying to “pass the buck” in order to cover up its security lapses.

The senior Ghanaian government official said the suspect bought a one-way ticket to Lagos from Accra that would have given him more than three hours at the airport.

Another BBC report monitored in Lagos on Friday, “Nigeria‘s ‘blame game‘ over bomber”, detailed visits paid to the Department of State Security (popularly known as SSS here) headquarters in Abuja and the NIA by the foreing medium. According to the repot, “Nigeria‘s two main intelligence agencies has blamed the other for failing to share key information two months ago about Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the young man who allegedly went on to try to blow up a plane over the United States with nearly 300 people on board.

“Inside the offices two senior DSS officials told the BBC that Nigeria‘s other main security outfit, the Nigerian Intelligence Agency (NIA) had not shared key information given to it by the father of the suspect – information which could potentially have stopped Mr Abdulmutallab boarding the plane.

“The two senior DSS officials – who gave me their names and allowed me to take notes throughout a 20-minute interview – said the agency that Mr Abdulmutallab Sr had briefed had been the NIA.

“The DSS officials went on to claim that although their agency was responsible for maintaining airport ”watch-lists” of people under suspicion, the NIA had not shared the father‘s information with them. The DSS officials explained that their agency dealt with Nigeria‘s internal security while the NIA was responsible for external threats.”

The BBC reporter claimed he spoke to the Foreign Affairs Minister, Ojo Maduekwe, about the blame game but that he, (Maduekwe) replied that he would reserve judgement on the truth of the matter pending government enquiries ordered by Vice-President Goodluck Jonathan.

Meanwhile, the Associated Press on Friday quoted officials of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency as saying that the U.S. gave Nigeria four full-body scanners for its international airports in 2008 to detect explosives and drugs, but none were used on the man suspected of trying to blow up the Detroit-bound flight.

Abdulmutallab, tracked by cameras through the security check, was said to have only gone through a metal detector and had his bag X-rayed when he arrived at Nigeria’s busiest airport to start his journey.

The Soter RS scanners delivers 3-D images that would have shown something hidden under clothing. But a spokesman for the NDLEA, which operates the machines, told The Associated Press that the one at Lagos airport was used sporadically and only on potential narcotics smugglers.

According to the report, word of the scanners’ presence in Nigeria’s four main airports appeared not to have reached top officials, including Harold Demuren, the head of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, who only on Wednesday told reporters that the Federal Government would buy 3-D full-body scanners for the airports, and insisted there were currently none there.

An official of the NDLEA, Ofoyeju Mitchell, told the AP on Thursday that one of the machines was kept in a room near the security checkpoint at Murtala Mohammed International Airport.

He said the scanners were not used on every passenger. Instead, drug agents selected frequent flyers, travellers heading to and from drug shipment points, and people who seemed deceptive or under stress.

“The frequency of checks is determined by the risk level of our assessment … (and) reasonable cause for suspicion,’’ Mitchell said.

Quoting an April 30 U.S. State Department report, AP said the scanners were installed in March, May and June of 2008 ‘’to detect explosives and drugs on passengers.’’
SOURCE: punchng.com

Terror attack: CIA, FBI quiz Farouk’s dad

Information Nigeria — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 03:02:57 +0000

TO unravel the mystery and puzzle called Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the 23-year-old Nigerian who tried to blow up a US plane, the father, Alhaji Umaru Mutallab, was yesterday quizzed by American security operatives, the Central Intelligence Agency, CIA and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, FBI, agents in Abuja.
This is coming just as Umar Farouk’s roommates in Yemen local language institute where he was studying Arabic confirmed that he led a devout life and shunned music and women while he stayed in Yemen.
A source at the US embassy in Abuja said: “I can confirm that Umaru Mutallab was summoned to the desk office of the US embassy in Abuja where he was interrogated by men from the CIA and FBI on Monday.
CIA and FBI questioned him about his background and that of his son, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab.’‘
The father had earlier this year warned US diplomats in Abuja that his son was an extremist threat.
Abdulmutallab led devout life in Yemen
Meanwhile, the roommate of Abdulmutallab, said the would-be-bomber led a devout life and shunned music and women while he stayed in Yemen.
Yemeni officials have confirmed that Abdulmutallab spent time in Yemen just before the attempted Christmas Day attack and that he studied Arabic at a local language institute.
His roommate, Ahmed Hassan, told The Associated Press yesterday that the Nigerian would sometimes disappear from the suite they shared without any explanation. One of the teachers at the institute, Ahmed Mohammed, said Abdulmutallab spent the last 10 days of the holy month of Ramadan sequestered in a mosque and attended barely four hours of the 20-hour course he enrolled in.
US admits security failure
President Barak Obama yesterday lashed out at systemic intelligence failures over an attempted attack on a US jet. This is coming amid reports Wednesday that Washington was planning reprisal strikes against targets in Yemen. The US president was told Tuesday there had been warnings of possible Christmas holiday attacks, and information that the Nigerian would-be bomber was a threat, but the data was not properly distributed.
“A systemic failure has occurred and I consider that totally unacceptable,” Obama said, breaking his Hawaii vacation for a second straight day as recriminations mounted over the botched December 25 attack. Obama said, “there was a mix of human and systemic failures that contributed to this potential catastrophic breach of security. We need to learn from this episode and act quickly to fix the flaws in our system because our security is at stake and lives are at stake.”
SOURCE: vanguardngr.com

Nigerian bomb suspect was in Yemen

Information Nigeria — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 03:56:37 +0000

Yemeni authority said, yesterday, that the Nigerian accused of trying to blow up a US-bound passenger jet was living there until a few weeks ago, while President Obama of United States of America has ordered full investigation into the incident.
Also yesterday, the first photos emerged of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab explosive-laden underpants.
Abdulmutallab, who allegedly tried to use a syringe to set off a high explosive called pentaery-thritol tetranitrate, PETN, sewn into his underwear, has reportedly confessed to being trained for his mission by an Al-Qaeda bomb maker in Yemen.
A Yemeni foreign ministry spokesman said, “he stayed in Yemen between the beginning of August and the beginning of December, after having received a visa to study Arabic at an institute in Sanaa where he had previously studied.”
Yemen gave him a visa after security officials were “reassured that he had been granted visas by friendly countries, and still held a valid visa to the US, where he had visited before,” the spokesman said.
US media, meanwhile, published government photographs showing the suspect’s singed underwear, a syringe and a plastic container believed to have stored the explosive PETN. The explosive device ignited but failed to detonate.
Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, AQAP, an affiliate of Osama bin Laden’s terror network led by Yemeni and Saudi radicals, claimed on Monday that it was behind the plot and threatened new attacks against the West.
Al-Qaeda’s “Nigerian brother”
An Internet statement, which was accompanied by a picture of suspected would-be bomber Abdulmu-tallab, boasted of the coup delivered by the “Nigerian brother” against Western airport security.
He “was able to breach all the modern and sophisticated technologies and checkpoints at the airports around the world,” US monitoring group IntelCenter said, quoting from its translation of the statement.
According to The New York Times, Abdulmutallab told FBI agents that he was connected to the Al-Qaeda affiliate by a radical Yemeni cleric whom he contacted online.
Meanwhile, students at the Institute of Languages in the capital Sanaa’s old city told AFP that Abdulmutallab studied at the school and lived in student housing. He was in Yemen between August and early December they said.
“He was normal and mixed with women and dealt with all people normally,” an American student said, asking not to be identified.
Abdulmutallab also spent several months at the University of Wollongong’s Dubai branch in 2009, Vice-Chancellor Gerard Sutton told ABC radio Tuesday. Sutton described Abdulmutallab as a “normal student”. Officials at the university’s Dubai campus refused to discuss Abdulmutallab yesterday.
The Yemeni spokesman said that security agencies are investigating “the parties with whom the accused Nigerian was in contact during his time in Yemen.” He said the results will be “sent to US agencies investigating the attempted attack, within the framework of US-Yemeni cooperation on security and fighting terrorism.”
The spokesman condem-ned the attack, and said his country, “which has suffered much from terrorism,” remains “an active partner in the international community in the war against terrorism.”
Obama orders full investigation
As US leaders spoke of Yemen as a new frontline in the war, President Barack Obama who is on vacation in Hawaii vowed to hunt down extremists wherever they plot against the United States.
Obama pledged to “disrupt, to dismantle and defeat the violent extremists who threaten us — whether they are from Afghanistan or Pakistan, Yemen or Somalia or anywhere they are plotting attacks against the US homeland. A full investigation has been launched into this attempted act of terrorism and we will not rest until we find all who were involved and hold them accountable,” Obama said on Monday in Hawaii.
Yemen’s confirmation that Abdulmutallab was in the country as recently as early December came as US investigators try to determine if he was working alone or really was instructed by Al-Qaeda as the terror network claims.
A controversy is also raging in the United States over a no-fly list system that allowed Abdulmutallab to fly to Detroit on Northwest Airlines Flight 253 with 290 people on board, and with a valid US visa despite the fact he was on a broad terrorist watch-list.
SOURCE: vanguardngr.com

Umar Farouk Mutallab's Family Issues Press Statement

Information Nigeria — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 22:44:04 +0000

Our family, like the rest of the world, was woken up in the early hours of Saturday, 26th December, 2009 to the news of an attempt to blow up a plane by a young Nigerian man, who was later identified as Umar Farouk AbdulMutallab. Umar Farouk AbdulMutallab is the son of Alhaji (Dr.) Umaru AbdulMutallab, the head of this Family.

Prior to this incident, his father, having become concerned about his disappearance and stoppage of communication while schooling abroad, reported the matter to the Nigerian security agencies about two months ago, and to some foreign security agencies about a month and a half ago, then sought their assistance to find and return him home.

We provided them with all the information required of us to enable them do this. We were hopeful that they would find and return him home. It was while we were waiting for the outcome of their investigation that we arose to the shocking news of that day.

The disappearance and cessation of communication which got his mother and father concerned to report to the security agencies are completely out of character and a very recent development, as before then, from very early childhood, Farouk, to the best of parental monitoring, had never shown any attitude, conduct or association that would give concern. As soon as concern arose, very recently, his parents, reported it and sought help.

The family will continue to fully cooperate with local and international security agencies towards the investigation of this matter, while we await results of the full investigation.

We, along with the whole world, are thankful to Al-Mighty God that there were no lives lost in the incident. May God continue to protect us all, amen.

Finally, as the matter is being investigated by the various agencies, and has already been mentioned in a US court, the family requests that the press should regard this as the only statement it will make for now.

Thank you.
Signed

The Mutallab Family
Abuja,
Nigeria