₦airaland Forum

☻ajali☺:
Aus dem kommunistischen Osten Auch suuuper!

☻ajali☺:
Ich bin aus dem kapitalistischen Westen. Is it a problem?

Ezeonwa:
Guy why not ask your pastor whether he want 2 change his car.becos i know dat it is only him and some elders can giv u a good car at dat price

ladej:
no more ultimatum, now its diplomacy !

davidylan:
and for those crying about how the US invading Nigeria will be a disaster, i think Japan is a very good example.

na.com2:
If the president is actually hail and hearty then let him do live web cam conference on NTA.

Al Qaeda 'Recruited Bomb Plotter In London'
12:55pm UK, Thursday January 07, 2010

Tim Marshall, in Sana'a, Yemen

A Nigerian man charged with attempted murder over the alleged Christmas Day plot was recruited by al Qaeda in London, according to reports.
Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab, 23, has been charged with attempted murder and trying to use a weapon of mass destruction after allegedly trying to blow up a plane.

The country's deputy prime minister had acknowledged that Mutallab had been in his country.

But he said Mutallab had been recruited by al Qaeda in London, adding that he had been equipped and trained in Nigeria."

However, senior Home Office officials have denied that Mutallab was recruited by al Qaeda in the UK, saying they think he was recruited and radicalised abroad.

The former London student had previously been charged with trying to set off explosives on board a flight from Amsterdam to Detroit.



Explosives allegedly in pants

He has now also been indicted on six counts, including the attempted murder of the other 289 passengers and crew on board the plane, by a US grand jury.

Court documents accused him of "carrying a concealed bomb" inside his clothing on board Northwest Flight 253.

"The bomb consisted of a device containing Pentaerythritol Tetranitrate (PETN), Triacetone Triperoxide (TATP) and other ingredients," the charge sheet said, adding that both substances were highly explosive.

"The bomb was designed to allow defendant Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab to detonate it at a time of his choosing, and to thereby cause an explosion aboard Flight 253."

Mutallab faces life imprisonment if convicted of the charge of trying to use a weapon of mass destruction, the US Department of Justice said.

Two charges of possession of a firearm carry a mandatory jail term of 30 years.

"This investigation is fast-paced, global and ongoing, and it has already yielded valuable intelligence that we will follow wherever it leads," Attorney General Eric Holder said.

He vowed that "anyone we find responsible for this alleged attack will be brought to justice using every tool - military or judicial - available to our government".

Barack Obama admitted the US security services missed a series of "red flags" which could have uncovered the alleged plot earlier.


http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/World-News/Christmas-Day-Bomb-Plot-Nigerian-Umar-Farouk-Abdul-Mutallab-Indicted-On-Six-Charges/Article/201001115515874?lpos=World_News_Carousel_Region_3&lid=ARTICLE_15515874_Christmas_Day_Bomb_Plot%3A_Nigerian_Umar_Farouk_Abdul_Mutallab_Indicted_On_Six_Charges

Nigeria President Yar'Adua budget signature 'forged' 

President Umaru Yar'Adua has suffered ill-health for several years
Allies of Nigeria's ailing president forged his signature on the country's supplementary budget last month, opposition politicians have alleged.

They have written to the police asking them to investigate the forgery claims.

The government said President Umaru Yar'Adua signed the budget despite being treated for a heart condition in Saudi Arabia.

Mr Yar'Adua has been away for six weeks, fuelling fears of a power vacuum in Africa's most populous nation.

Several court cases have been launched demanding that power be officially handed to the vice-president.

And one group of activists has even suggested the president should be declared a missing person, and a search party should be sent out.

'Dismay'
In the latest move, an umbrella group for the main opposition parties known as the Conference of Nigerian Political Parties (CNPP) has demanded that the police investigate the alleged forgery.

The group's lawyer, opposition official Femi Falana, said in the letter that the CNPP had tried to verify claims by the government that the budget had been taken to Saudi Arabia for the president to sign on his sick bed.

"To its utter dismay our client (CNPP) has confirmed that the signature of the president and the seal of the Federal Republic of Nigeria were forged by some persons in the presidency," the letter read.

"Our client has instructed us to request you to use your good offices to set the engine in motion for the investigation and prosecution of those who carried out the nefarious act."

The CNPP said it would take the issue to the federal court next week if the police failed to act.

Mr Falana, who is also senior opposition activist, is behind one of the court cases being brought against the government.

He wants judges to annul all decisions taken by the cabinet during the president's absence.

In the other cases, one activist wants Mr Yar'Adua to be sacked because of his ill health and the Nigerian Bar Association is demanding that power be handed over to Vice-President Goodluck Jonathan.

The courts have asked for the three cases to be merged, and the consolidated case is due to be heard next week.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8445776.stm

Nigeria President Yar'Adua budget signature 'forged'  

President Umaru Yar'Adua has suffered ill-health for several years
Allies of Nigeria's ailing president forged his signature on the country's supplementary budget last month, opposition politicians have alleged.

They have written to the police asking them to investigate the forgery claims.

The government said President Umaru Yar'Adua signed the budget despite being treated for a heart condition in Saudi Arabia.

Mr Yar'Adua has been away for six weeks, fuelling fears of a power vacuum in Africa's most populous nation.

Several court cases have been launched demanding that power be officially handed to the vice-president.

And one group of activists has even suggested the president should be declared a missing person, and a search party should be sent out.

'Dismay'

In the latest move, an umbrella group for the main opposition parties known as the Conference of Nigerian Political Parties (CNPP) has demanded that the police investigate the alleged forgery.

The group's lawyer, opposition official Femi Falana, said in the letter that the CNPP had tried to verify claims by the government that the budget had been taken to Saudi Arabia for the president to sign on his sick bed.

"To its utter dismay our client (CNPP) has confirmed that the signature of the president and the seal of the Federal Republic of Nigeria were forged by some persons in the presidency," the letter read.

"Our client has instructed us to request you to use your good offices to set the engine in motion for the investigation and prosecution of those who carried out the nefarious act."

The CNPP said it would take the issue to the federal court next week if the police failed to act.

Mr Falana, who is also senior opposition activist, is behind one of the court cases being brought against the government.

He wants judges to annul all decisions taken by the cabinet during the president's absence.

In the other cases, one activist wants Mr Yar'Adua to be sacked because of his ill health and the Nigerian Bar Association is demanding that power be handed over to Vice-President Goodluck Jonathan.

The courts have asked for the three cases to be merged, and the consolidated case is due to be heard next week.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8445776.stm

gidson12:
a US terrorism and political violence expert, J. Peter Pham, had written in his column “Strategic Interests” in the World Defense Review that the vulnerability of Nigeria’s oil infrastructure was a threat to the national interests of the United States
and read this too http://www.tribune.com.ng/07012010/news/news1.html

tureal:
after all said and done,, i think the solution is for us to breakup,, YES breakup aboki go your way,, ,, briafa go your way,, south south go your way,,, oloduwa go your way,, make we all know the one wan we dey

Ailing Nigeria President Yar'Adua 'held phone talks'

President Umaru Yar'Adua has suffered ill-health for several years
Nigerian President Umaru Yar'Adua, who has been in hospital abroad for the past 44 days, has spoken on the phone to key officials, a minister says.

Information Minister Dora Akunyili says Mr Yar'Adua spoke to the vice president on Tuesday.

Earlier, FM Ojo Maduekwe told the BBC he believed Mr Yar'Adua - who is being treated for a heart condition - was recovering in Saudi Arabia's hospital.

The comments come amid growing fears about a power vacuum in Nigeria.

'Getting better'

"The vice president told us at the cabinet meeting that he spoke with the president at about 2000 (1900 GMT) on Tuesday," Mr Akunyili told reporters, without giving further details.


Those who are around him give us a very optimistic assessment

Foreign Minister Ojo Maduekwe
Nigerian officials also said that the 58-year-old president spoke to Senate President David Mark and Speaker of the House of Representatives Oladimeji Bankole late on Tuesday.

Separately, Foreign Minister Ojo Maduekwe told the BBC that, as far as he knew, the president was conscious and was recovering in hospital.

Mr Maduekwe admitted that he had not spoken to Mr Yar'Adua since he left the country, but said the president was "getting better".

"Those who are around him give us a very optimistic assessment," he added.

He stressed that there was no crisis as Vice-President Goodluck Jonathan was "doing a great job".

The BBC's Will Ross in Nigeria says Mr Yar A'dua has suffered from serious health problems for years and has been absent before.

But this time more than six weeks have elapsed with no clear proof of where or how the president is faring, and many Nigerians feel they deserve to be better informed, he says.

Several legal cases have been launched to try to ensure that power is transferred officially to the vice-president.

But Mr Maduekwe said the vice-president automatically stood in when the president was away, although he could not perform all of the president's functions.

Our correspondent says some Nigerians regard the president's absence as a dangerous state of affairs - especially for a country which turned its back on unpopular, turbulent military rule, only a decade ago.

boy t:
OB AMA,  make you 1st  take care of your economy and all the shootings in the hood, the failed CIA job , etc  b/4 you start rating other countries.

olalekan1:
If you can not support NIgeria here, kindly and gently shut your mouth up because even the US are reading our comments here. Pls let us becareful of our comments.

kosovo:
I couldn't stop laughing, the truth, NO ONE CARES,
   I thought Nigerians were clamoring for a black American president, and when i never supported Obama here, i was almost stoned to Death via the internet/Nairaland, Now where is the love?

asanga:
The King must dance unclothed.

Emilo:
What amazes me is the boys access to money at a tender age, his father was a one time commissioner or whatever during obasanjo-muritala administration, a one time director in one those bank and bla bla bla and his son has access to so much wealth, then i image the access kids of ministers, ambassordors former top politician etc would have. Yet people are suffering in the same country. God save us.

Bombing hell
•Boy who blew Nigeria’s image
•Nigerian travellers in trouble
By CHIOMA IGBOKWE
Saturday, January 2, 2010

 
These are not the best of times for Nigerians traveling to any part of the world, especially to United States and Europe. This is because they are now subjected to embarrassing searches and scrutiny, to the extent that some of them are missing their connecting flights and experiencing cases of missing or withheld luggage.

Ever since 23-year-old Umar Farouk AbdulMutallah, a Nigerian resident in Yemen, attempted to detonate an explosive aboard a Delta Airline plane heading to Detroit, in United States, travelers have been experiencing hell. It was gathered that travelers leaving and entering the United States are now thoroughly searched before being allowed to board aircraft. Also, luggage are screened thorough before being loaded unto aircraft.

Saturday Sun gathered that some luggage are actually intercepted and given special attention. In effect, many passengers now arrive their destinations only to discover that their bags and suitcases are not in the same aircraft.

Cases of missing suitcases
At the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, many passengers, mainly from the United States, now besiege foreign airlines looking for their luggage. Saturday Sun gathered that the luggage of these passengers are duly checked in, at their departure points, only for the passengers to discover, on arrival in Nigeria, that they were not loaded into the aircraft.

Between Sunday and Thursday, when Saturday Sun visited the airport on a daily basis, many of these passengers were seen looking for their luggage. The case of Mallam Ibrahim Abubakar is most pathetic. He had departed Los Angeles, California, in the United States, on December 26, 20009 for Nigeria, through London. His luggage were checked in. However, when he arrived Lagos, he discovered that three of his suitcases were missing. He was told by the airline to come back the next day, with a promise that his missing luggage will come with the next flight.

Abubakar had come back to the airport the next day, but his missing luggage did not arrive with the aircraft. He was asked to, again, come back to the airport the next day. By Wednesday, he was yet to get his luggage.
Speaking with Saturday Sun, Abubakar said he was in trouble, as he had returned to the country for the burial of his father, which is taking place today. He revealed that most of the materials needed for the burial were in his missing luggage.

“I have been coming to the airport since Saturday when I arrived Lagos. I am heading for Kano for the burial of my father. I came back to the country because of the burial. Now I cannot find my bags. Everything needed for the burial is in the bags. I am confused,” Abubakar told Saturday Sun.
Another passenger, who arrived Lagos on Wednesday, from London, was seen shedding tears, as she made her way to the office of a foreign airline in whose aircraft she arrived Lagos that morning. According to Funke, she arrived that morning to discover that her luggage were not complete. She revealed that out of the four bags she checked in, only two arrived with her.

“I don’t know how this could have happened. My bags were duly checked in and the tags given to me. Now they are not complete. What explanation can they give for this?”, she lamented.
Mrs. Mabel Ifeoma Ukeh also had a bitter experience. She had left United States on December 27, 2009 for Lagos, through London. She had checked in three suitcases at the Baltimore Washington International (BWI) Airport, in Maryland. On getting to Lagos, she discovered that one of her luggage did not arrive with her. The airline had told her to come back the next day, promising that the luggage would arrive with another flight. By Wednesday, her luggage was yet to arrive.

Mabel had lamented: “I have only 14 days to stay in Nigeria. First, I was to arrive on December 28, but because of flight delay I arrived on December 28 only to discover that my luggage was not complete. I was supposed to proceed to Port Harcourt on December 29 but I have been stuck in Lagos as I wait for my luggage. The airline keeps telling me to come the next day and there is no clue as to the whereabouts of my luggage. Everything I bought for people, as Christmas gift, is in the luggage.”

Security check cause of delayed luggage
Saturday Sun gathered that security has been beefed up at United States airports and, therefore, checks have taken new dimension. Owing to this, most flights from the United States are now delayed. It was gathered that outgoing flights from the US are delayed between one hour and two hours, as security agents frisk passengers and their luggage. As a result, passengers are now missing their connecting flights.

It was learnt that almost all passengers who left United States, through London, to Nigeria, since the Muttalab saga, have missed their connecting flights. The affected airlines have always made emergency plans for such passengers to get another connecting flights. However, in most cases, the affected passengers spend up to 12 hours in London airport waiting for the connecting flights.

Saturday Sun gathered that security agents in the US and other European countries, as part of the screening measures, now put aside luggage, whose contents are not clear. Such luggage are said to, sometimes, given physical searches before they are sent to their final destinations and in most cases when their owners would have long arrived. This, a source in one of the foreign airlines revealed, explains why some luggage do not arrive with their owners.

The boy Farouk Mutallab
Before his dastardly move to bomb an airline, Farouk’s family has always been in the news, albeit, for something positive. His father, a seasoned banker was the immediate past chairman of Nigeria foremost bank, First Bank Nigeria Plc. He also has controlling shares in some leading firms in the country.
All these were obliterated on Christmas Day by the macabre attempt of his son, Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab, who wanted to blow up a Delta airline Flight 253 with 278 passengers on board. Farouk on board the same airline had tried to detonate an explosive device as the plane was planning to land in Detroit. The flight took off in Amsterdam.

After his high school at the British International School, Lome, Togo, the young Mutallab had proceeded to the University College, London, where he studied Mechanical Engineering. While studying in Britain, he was the president of his school Islamic society between 2006 and 2007. He had proceeded to Dubai for his master’s programme in Business Administration, but abandoned the course to study Arabic in Yemen. While in Yemen, the Federal Bureau of Investigation investigations revealed that Mutallab was tutored in terrorism, while living with a senior Al Queda commander.

Yemen foreign officials said Mutallab visited Yemen between the beginning of December, after having received a visa to study Arabic at an institute in Sanaa, where he had previously studied. According to Agence France Presse, students at the Institute of Languages in Sanaa old city told the agency that Abdul Mutallab studied at the school and lived in students hostel.

Just as his parents were disappointed and are managing to live with the odium that his action had generated, authorities at the University College, London had expressed consternation, Malcolm Grant, University College, London provost frowned at the action. He said: “The account I have had from his tutors is that he was a well mannered student, quietly spoken, polite, able and gave no indication at all of what his inclinations might be.
“We are shocked by what has happened and will be reflecting on it very carefully as further details emerge … there was nothing about his conduct which gave his tutors any cause for concern.”

Farouk’s trip to US
Saturday Sun gathered that Farouk has been living outside Nigeria for the greater part of his life. He had gone to Lome, as a young man, from where he proceeded to England, and then to London. On the day he took a trip to US, through Amsterdam, in the Netherlands, Farouk had arrived Lagos, from Accra, Ghana and spent less than 30 minutes at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, within which he joined the plane to Amsterdam.

He arrived Nigeria on December 24, 2009 via Virgin Nigeria flight. His passport was scanned on entry into Nigeria at 20.08 and was scanned at check-in for departure to Amsterdam at 20.35. It was gathered that 3D body scanners, the latest technology in screening of passengers, are in place at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport. All passengers within the arrival and departure halls of the airport are captured, with any hidden object seen.

However, an official of the airline in which Farouk arrived Lagos said that passengers who arrived from Accra soon after proceeded to board the flight to Amsterdam. He said that when the flight arrived, passengers going to Amsterdam had started boarding.

Farouk’s father’s failed attempt to Yemen
It was gathered that Farouk’s father did not only stop at reporting his son to the United States authorities but also made effort to stop him from living in Yemen.

Sources said that when Farouk abandoned his master’s degree programme in Dubai and relocated to Yemen, his father applied for visa to Yemen to visit him and take him back to Dubai. It was gathered that the Yemeni embassy in Nigeria had denied the man visa and therefore, stalled the planned trip.

DEKUNLE26:
the old man has done his best he could do for his son and even for America by reporting his own son
how many father can do that even in America. why CIA? do you know that America have away of twisting
many things into their favour.the deed is done thank God for pastors and imam who were pray in inside aircraft that day.the useless
and hopeless boy should face the music squarely .so America should stop liking Nigeria with that ugly incident,anybody could do that and face the music.
the useless boy does not have liver to do such ugly incident,cos he was not trained and taught so by his innocent father.
Let America do justice to the mutallab cos there were Nigerians on board that day so why shouting Nigeria.