The Nigerian man, Abdul Farouk Umar Abdulmutallab, who was arrested in Detroit after setting off an incendiary on a Northwest Airlines flight from Amsterdam, is the son of Alhaji Umaru Mutallab, a former Nigerian minister who,  until recently, was a director of Nigeria’s oldest bank. Mutallab belongs to a very prominent and wealthy Nigerian family. What is disturbing is that the father says half a year ago, he told the American embassy and the Nigerian security authorities about the activities of his son, who over the last few years, has been expressing extremist views. The father does not understand why his son had been given permission to travel to the United States.

The mother (stepmother) of the suspect is a woman from Yemen (where the suspect is said to have received the incendiary materials). During his middle school years at the international school in Togo, he already had extremist views. Then he went to London to study, then went to Egypt, and finally to Dubai. Family members say that he told them he did not want to have anything to do with them.

Source: Het Parool (Dutch paper)

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