The stay in Ghana, longer than previously believed, could open a new front for investigators in a global probe of Mr. Abdulmutallab’s movements before his alleged attempt to bring down a Northwest Airlines flight.
Ghanaian officials are investigating his stay in the country. They have also criticized the U.S. and U.K. for not sharing information about Mr. Abdulmutallab before his arrival in Ghana, which they say might have tipped them off that he was a threat.
The Ghanaian government said Mr. Abdulmutallab arrived in Accra on Dec. 9. He stayed for just over two weeks before flying to Lagos to board his flight to Amsterdam, where he connected to the Detroit-bound flight that he allegedly attempted to attack with explosives sewn into his underwear.
Ghana’s Deputy Information Minister Samuel Okudzeto-Ablakwa said Mr. Abdulmutallab arrived at 3:20 a.m. on Dec. 9, on an Ethiopian Airlines flight from Dubai via Addis Ababa. He didn’t encounter any immigration trouble because the Ghanaian government didn’t have information the U.S. and U.K. had that might have raised alarm, Mr. Okudzeto-Ablakwa said.
Mr. Abdulmutallab’s father had told U.S. and Nigerian authorities of his concern about his son’s growing extremism, and British officials in May 2009 denied Mr. Abdulmutallab a student visa to re-enter that country, where he had graduated from college in 2008.
Source: African commission