Eighty-two-year-old billionaire businessman, Alhaji Umaru Abdul Mutallab, has said he hopes to see his son, Farouk Abdul Mutallab, who is serving a life sentence in a United States of America prison over act of terrorism before he dies.
Aged 23 then, Farouk, fondly referred to as ‘underwear bomber’, attempted to detonate plastic explosives hidden in his underwear aboard a Northwest Airlines Flight 253 from Amsterdam to Detroit, Michigan, USA, on Christmas Day in 2009.
Umaru, in an interview on Trust TV, monitored in Kaduna on Wednesday, said he was in touch with his son but under strict prison guidelines.
According to him, Farouk phones him two or three times in a month, adding, “We cannot phone him, but he’s the one who can phone us and we do speak.
“Sometimes, he phones twice or thrice in a month.”
He added that Farouk’s mother and siblings were with him in the US prison about three weeks ago.
The octogenarian added, “As a matter of fact, his mother, brother and sister were with him about two to three weeks ago.
“They visited him under very strict prison guidelines, but we will keep on praying to Almighty Allah. Maybe one day in my lifetime, we will see him back. But it is a situation whereby he has three life sentences plus 40 years. It is a lot.
“But only Almighty Allah will bring us into a situation of seeing him in this world with his siblings here in Nigeria.”
When asked whether he was among the 11th richest men in Nigeria, the former Chairman of First Bank Plc and UBA Plc said would not consider himself as one of the richest in the country.
“I am not a poor man, neither will say I am one of the richest persons in Nigeria, but I thank God for what He has given me. I’m grateful to Him. But I will not consider myself as the 11th richest man in Nigeria by any chance,” he added.