By Kylie M Tsudama
Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa

LAGOS, Nigeria – Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was charged on Saturday with trying to blow up Northwest Airlines flight 253, an American passenger plane carrying nearly 300 people.

Abdulmutallab, a 23-year-old, London-educated Nigerian, boarded a flight in Lagos, Nigeria, changed planes in Amsterdam, and, as the flight was approaching Detroit, attempted to detonate a bomb.  Instead of exploding, however, the explosive device caught fire and burned the suspect.  He was treated for burns at a Detroit hospital before being transferred to a federal prison about 50 miles away in the city of Milan.

The suspect graduated from a prominent London university in June 2008 and soon after began showing signs of trouble.  He went to Dubai to continue his education but defied his family’s wishes and went to Yemen to study Arabic and Shariah law (Islamic law).

In May of this year, the UK denied Abdulmutallab re-entry because of the questionable nature of the university to which he said he was applying.

According to Nigeria’s Minister of Information Dora Akunyili, he entered and left Nigeria on December 24, the day before the bombing attempt.

“The man in question has been living outside the country for a while.  He sneaked into Nigeria on the 24th of December and left the same day,” she said.

His cousin Mohammed Mutallab claims that Abdulmutallab came into contact with extremist groups while studying in London and that he became influenced by these groups when he visited East London mosque.  The mosque has three times previously been accused of hosting Muslim extremist preachers.

Those in the town he grew up in blame his foreign education.

“Everyone knew about the Mutallabs and the father is honest, generous, helpful and above all a prominent banker.  I cannot see why his son should be involved in this act.  My only advice to the elite is to allow their children to mingle with the children of the masses so that he will have some of the traditional morals and values that (the elder) Mutallab himself enjoyed,” said Ibrahim Bello, a Funtua resident close to the Mutallab family home.

Abdulmutallab sent one final text message to his father, Alhaji Umaru Mutallab, in November saying he no longer wanted any contact with his family.  Mutallab and his wife applied for visas to Yemen to bring their son home but when they were denied, he alerted Nigerian and American officials.  He believed that his son had been “radicalized” during his trips outside the country.

Authorities in the United States, Europe, and Africa are all trying to figure out where Abdulmutallab has been in the past year and under whose influence he came.

“Nigerian security agencies are working hand-in-hand with international security agencies on this matter,” said Akunyili.

For more information, please see:

AFP – Plane Bomb Suspect ‘in Nigeria on December 24’ – 28 December 2009

Independent – Nigerian in Aircraft Attack Linked to London Mosque – 28 December 2009

Wall Street Jourmal – Suspect’s Privileged Existence Took Radical Turn – 28 December 2009

LA Times – Nigerian Accused of Trying to Destroy Northwest Airlines Flight Transferred to Federal Prison – 27 December 2009

Reuters – Nigeria Bomber’s Hometown Blames Foreign Schooling – 27 December 2009