WASHINGTON: A Facebook group started to condemn the alleged attempt to blow up a US passenger plane by a 23-year-old Nigerian has attracted more than 43,000 members.
“We Condemn Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab’s Action: Nigerians are not Terrorists,” is the tagline for the Facebook group. The group was created by Henry Omoregie, who described himself in an email exchange with AFP as an oil and gas recruitment consultant and freelance online journalist in Port Harcourt, Nigeria.
The description of the group says it was formed to “condemn the behaviour of a lone numbskull who has just dragged Nigeria’s already sodden image more into the mud. “Nigerians are good people, we are not terrorists, we love life!” the page says.
Abdulmutallab, the son of a prominent Nigerian banker, has been accused by US authorities of trying to bring down the US-bound airliner on Christmas Day by setting off a high explosive called PETN sewn into his underwear.
“I started this page because it has been years of global disgust at Nigeria and Nigerians for acts done by a micro unit of actually peace-loving people,” Omoregie said in the email to AFP. “We Nigerians cannot fold our arms and watch while the acts of just one over-bloated sun (sic) of a big-gun smears the already sodden image of our great Nation and puts the travel comfort of over 150 million in jeopardy,” he said.
