BY Mayowa Tijani
A report on the murder of Fusilier Lee Rigby, who was killed in May 2013, has revealed that a 29-year-old Nigerian attempted fighting with Islamist group al-Shabab before his arrest in 2010.
The report, which revealed that the death of the British soldier could not have been prevented despite his killers appearing in seven intelligence investigations, also had it that one of the two Nigerians involved in the murder attempted joining Islamist terror group, al-Shabab.
The soldier was killed near Woolwich Barracks in London on May 22, 2013, by Michael Adebolajo (pictured, second from right) and Michael Adebowale who drove into him before hacking him to death.
Adebolajo received a life sentence in February while Adebowale was jailed for 45 years.
According to BBC, the intelligence and security committee set up to look into the murder discovered that 29-year-old Michael Adebolajo was arrested in 2010 after apparently preparing to fight with Somali militant group al-Shabab.
They also found out that Adebolajo was a high priority for MI5 during two operations where they couldn’t discover any intent to kill or prior planning of attack on the soldier.
Adebowale, the second Nigerian involved in the attack was never more than a low-level subject of interest in most of the investigations.
The two men appeared in seven different agency investigations – for the most part as low-level subjects of interest
The investigations concluded that “given what the agencies knew at the time, they were not in a position to prevent the murder of Fusilier Rigby”.
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