LAGOS, Nigeria — The Nigerian government will create anti-terror squads and allow armed US air marshals on flights to America following last month’s failed attempt by the Nigerian crotch bomber to blow up a Detroit-bound airliner.
A new bill to strengthen counterterrorism measures is awaiting approval by Nigeria’s Parliament, Vice President Goodluck Jonathan said in a statement yesterday from the capital, Abuja.
Following the Dec. 25 bombing attempt, for which al Qaeda in Yemen claimed responsibility, the United States included Nigeria among countries from which airline passengers will face special screening before boarding flights to American destinations.
Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a 23-year-old son of a wealthy Nigerian banker, is in jail after trying to set off an underwear bomb aboard Northwest Flight 253.
Jonathan met Jane Holl Lute, the US deputy secretary of Homeland Security, on Tuesday, and requested Nigeria be removed from a list of 14 countries deemed either state sponsors of terror or “countries of interest.”
While Abdulmutallab is Nigerian, he left Nigeria “at an early age” and received his “indoctrination far from the shores of Nigeria,” Jonathan said.