Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab: Bomb suspect's teacher and family shocked

A Nigerian man who tried and failed to blow up a plane over Detroit “sneaked” into his native country the day before his botched Christmas Day attempt, leaving his father shocked and regretful, Nigeria’s information minister said Sunday.

Information Minister Dora Akunyili told reporters Sunday that Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab passed through Nigeria for only one day before attempting to blow up a Northwest flight headed for Detroit via Amsterdam.

“The man in question has been living outside of the country for a while,” she said. “He sneaked into Nigeria on the 24th of December 2009 and left the same day.”

She did not elaborate or say where Abdulmutallab entered Nigeria or where he had lived previously. Nigerian officials said Saturday that they would launch their own investigation into the incident and cooperate with US investigators. She said Abdulmutallab’s father, a top banker, had previously warned US officials about his son’s activities.

“The father, Alhaji Umar Mutallab, who is a responsible and respected Nigerian, with a true Nigerian spirit, had earlier reported his concern about his son’s activities to relevant American authorities,” she said. “The father has already expressed deep shock and regret over his son’s actions.”

On Saturday, US officials charged Abdulmutallab with trying to destroy the plane. A conviction on the charge could bring Abdulmutallab up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

One of Abdulmutallab’s former teachers said he was shocked to hear the news. He said on Sunday that Abdulmutallab was so well-respected in high school that classmates nicknamed him “the Pope.”

But Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab also showed signs of inflexibility, said Michael Rimmer, a Briton who taught history at the British International School in Lome, Togo.
He said that, in a 2001 discussion about the Taliban in Afghanistan, Abdulmutallab was the only one to defend their actions — something he attributed at the time to a desire to play the devil’s advocate.

He also noted that during a school trip to London, Abdulmutallab became upset when the teacher took students to a pub and said it wasn’t right to be in a place where alcohol was being served.

Rimmer said that overall, his impression of Abdulmutallab had been an extremely positive one — noting in particular an incident in which the youngster chose to give 50 pounds to an orphanage rather than spend it on souvenirs in London.

“At one stage, his nickname was ’The Pope,”’ Rimmer said. “In one way it’s totally unsuitable because he’s Muslim,but he did have this saintly aura.
“In all the time I taught him we never had cross words,” Rimmer said from London in a telephone interview. “Somewhere along the line he must have met some sort of fanatics, and they must have turned his mind.”

Rimmer described the institution — an elite college preparatory school in the West African country, attended by children of diplomats and wealthy Africans — as “lovely, lovely environment” where Christians often joined in Islamic feasts and some of the best Christmas carolers were Muslims.

Abdulmutallab showed no signs of intolerance toward other students, Rimmer said, explaining that “lots of his mates were Christians.”

The Briton noted that he has not seen or heard from his former pupil since 2003, when he was about 15, but added that other students had been in touch to express their shock.

--- Associated Press Writer Raphael Satter contributed to this report from London.