- Nigerian travellers in trouble
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 said
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.
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