20091227

LAGOS (Reuters) - A Nigerian charged on Saturday with trying to blow up a U.S. passenger plane is the son of a prominent former banker, a family member said on Saturday, shocking the country's wealthy elite.

The 23-year-old, named by U.S. officials as Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, was taken into custody after being overpowered by passengers and crew as the Christmas Day flight approached Detroit from Amsterdam.

Abdul Mutallab, son of prominent former banker Umaru Mutallab, told Reuters the suspect was his brother. He declined to comment further ahead of an expected joint statement by the family and the Nigerian government on Sunday.

Vice President Goodluck Jonathan called a meeting of the country's security chiefs for Sunday to set up an investigative panel and try to find out more about the suspect's background and any links to foreign groups, a presidency source said.

Investigators in the United States are trying to confirm the man's claims that he has connections to al Qaeda.

"(Nigeria's) National Intelligence Agency spoke with his father today," a family friend said on condition of anonymity.

The friend told Reuters Abdulmutallab had attended the British School in Lome, Togo -- a boarding school mostly serving expatriates and students from around West Africa -- before studying engineering at University College London (UCL).

UCL said it had enrolled a student by the name of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab between September 2005 and June 2008, but said it had no evidence that this was the same person.