Terrorism: Lawyer explains why US spared Mutallab

Multi-Billionaire businessman and father of Farouk Umar Abdulmutallab, the Nigerian arrested for a failed attempt to bomb a US passenger jet, Alhaji Umaru Abdulmutallab, would have got all his assets and wealth seized but for his effort in alerting the authorities of his son’s radicalism, renowned Kaduna based lawyer,Yahaya Mahmood, has said.

Speaking to newsmen in Kaduna, at the weekend, Mahmood also condemned terrorist act anywhere in the world but faulted the way and manner the US was fighting terrorism.

“You see, the terrorist Act existing in the United States, which we have also passed in Nigeria and other countries of the world, stipulates heavy penalty for terrorism. It includes forfeiting all your assets. I think his father was very lucky that he informed the security agents and that was accepted. Otherwise, he also risks forfeiting his assets, especially if there is evidence that he collaborated or assisted the son,”he said.

He explained further that, “but I look at the whole thing from two different angles. The way we send our children abroad without proper guidance is one problem. You send your son to London or to the United States, you don’t check him or monitor the kind of friends he keeps there. At a tender age of 18 to 20, anything can happen. For some of these children, the enjoyment is so much that they start thinking what next to do.

“This is somebody who has not known any poverty or suffering, staying in a N4 million house in London and then he started saying that he likes his religion very well; he started writing on his Facebook that he is so lonely and has no Muslim friends to discuss Muslim affairs with. These are the kind of people that Al-Qaeda will easily convince.”