FORMER chief justice of Nigeria Muhammadu Uwais's son has apparently gone to the Middle East and joined the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (Isis) in what represents a big coup for the terrorists. 

In what is now a growing trend, middle class Muslims from affluent families from all over the world are abandoning lucrative careers to go and fight for jihadist groups. Hundreds of European Muslims have left good jobs to join Isis in Syria, Iraq and Libya and now they have started attracting Nigerian youngsters too. 

Apparently, the son of Justice Uwais, 79, who served as the chief justice of the Supreme Court of Nigeria from 1995 until 2006, is now an active combatant with Isis. He left Nigeria a few days back for Syria, with his two wives and children to fight alongside the Isis terrorists who presently control large territories in Iraq, Syria and Libya. 

This is the second time a member of a Nigerian elitist family will be linked to a foreign terrorist group. On December 25 2009, the notorious underwear bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, tried to blow up an aircraft en route from Amsterdam to Detroit, Michigan on the instructions of Al-Qaeda, who he had joined. 

Mr Abdulmutallab, who is presently serving four life sentences and a 50 year jail term without parole in the US for his crime, is the youngest son of Katsina's Alhaji Umaru Mutallab, a very wealthy Nigerian banker and businessman, who had also served as a federal minister in the 70s. Like Justice Uwais, he was highly influential within Nigerian political circles. 

Justice Uwais, who  upon retirement served as chairman of the committee that reviewed Nigeria’s electoral laws in 2007, has been told about the development. It is not yet clear if Justice Uwais' son had been involved with Boko Haram, Nigeria's home-grown Islamist terrorist group.