Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab Trial: Nigerian juror sacked from trial

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab Jury Selected - A
Nigerian woman who was earlier selected as a
juror in the trial of a 24-year- old Nigerian, Umar
Farouk Abdulmutallab, for allegedly attempting
to blow up a North-West Airline in Detriot on
December 25, 2009, has been dropped. District Judge Nancy Edmunds who announced the 12-
member jury to sit in the trial said there were
12 jurors and four alternates while the Nigerian
woman was dismissed after being identified
earlier as being from Nigeria. The judge did not
elaborate or explain the dismissal in court. Meanwhile, Nigerian security agencies have been
briefed to watch some key northern states- Kano,
Kaduna, Katsina Bauchi and Plateau. Informed security sources said the reports
exclusively published by Vanguard had caused the security high command to be extra-vigilant for a possible misguided attack on government
institutions, individuals and religious organisations by presumed admirers of the young Nigerian terror suspect Abdulmutallab, a well-educated 24-year-old from
an upper-class family, was directed by a radical
Islamic cleric in Yemen to carry a pant bomb into
the aircraft for a possible terrorist attack. The trial of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab is
suspected to be a flashpoint in the country where
some radical youths with connections in political
circles are believed to be sympathetic to his action
and have been plotting to unleash their own
attacks on Western interests and targets in the country to make political statements. Lawyers had not objected to keeping the Nigerian
woman in the jury pool when she was questioned
in court Wednesday. She had said on a jury
questionnaire that she was "embarrassed" at the
time of the attack. "We all feel it as a community,"
she said in court. She will now be replaced by one of the four
alternates and a new alternate will be chosen.
Opening statements in the trial are scheduled to
begin Tuesday next week. Abdulmutallab has
pleaded not guilty to eight charges, including
conspiracy to commit terrorism and attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction. The government says he wanted to blow up the
plane by detonating chemicals in his underwear,
just seven minutes before the jet carrying 279
passengers and a crew of 11 was to land at Detroit
Metropolitan Airport. The failed suicide attack, the first act of terrorism in
the U.S. during the Obama administration, revealed
the rise of a dangerous al-Qaida affiliate and the
growing influence of American-born cleric Anwar
al-Awlaki, who was killed by a U.S. military strike in
Yemen last week. The Nigerian-born bomber was defiant as he
appeared in court, calling America a "cancer",
which is the belief of radical Islamic groups who
see the super power as the cause of the world
problem. Security sources, however, told Vanguard
that the security agencies have braced up for Mutallab's admirers who may want to hit back at
United States and its interest. Hugo Odiogor Vanguard/07/10/2011