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| Michael Adebolajo(L),Michael Adebowale(R) |
Michael Adebowale, the
22-year-old son of a Christian probation officer and a member of staff at the
Nigerian High Commission, was filmed holding a bloodied cleaver in his hand
after Drummer Lee Rigby was butchered in a London street. Friends said he had
been a “lovely boy” but became involved in some “serious trouble” as a teenager
and then turned to Islam. He started mixing with some “bad people” and became
increasingly extreme in his views.
His mother Juliet Obasuyi, a
43-year-old probation officer, went to her friend and neighbour, a 62-year-old
security officer, for help about nine months ago after her son dropped out of
university.
She told him: “Michael is
not listening any more. His older sister is a good Christian with a degree but
Michael is rebelling as he has no father figure, dropping out of university and
handing out leaflets in Woolwich town centre.
“He is from a strong
Christian family but he is turning to Islam and turning against the family. He
is preaching in the streets. He needs spiritual guidance before he radicalises
himself.”
Another friend, Steve
Adebiyi, who started a company with Mrs Obasuyi, said she was often left in
tears after speaking to him on the phone. “The boy was giving the mother
problems,” he said. “She said he was in with some bad group and causing a lot
of trouble. They brainwashed him.”
He and Michael Adebolajo,
the other suspected terrorist, are thought to have met at Greenwich University.
His mother was advised by a
neighbour to take him to the head of the Woolwich mosque for spiritual
guidance. He was converted to Islam by the head Imam, and taken for weeks of
“further training” at a centre near Cambridge.
When he returned, however,
he was even more “radicalized” and his mother could no longer “get through to
him”. A spokesman for the mosque said they did not know if he attended or been
converted there.
She subsequently returned to
Nigeria, where she is pursuing a career in politics.
Neighbours in Greenwich said
he had been a “lovely boy” who was a keen Manchester United fan, but as a
teenager became “angry at a lot of things”.
Magdalene Edwards told
Channel 4 News: “He was a lovely boy. Very gentle natured, very respectful to
elderly people.
“He was angry at a lot of
things like a lot of young people are. About a year ago is when I saw him with
this whole Muslim dress.
“I said to him are you a
Muslim. And he said yes, he’s gone that way now. I said just be careful, I’m
aware that there are some that ride on the coat tales of Islam and they’re
really not serving their cause.”
Adebowale’s father, Adeniyi,
was born in Nigeria but came to Britain to study at Canterbury University. He
and Mrs Obasuyi had a child, Michael, but subsequently split up.
His mother married twice but
is now understood to be single. She also started a small fashion business. She
raised Adebowale in Woolwich and Greenwich along with his half sister.
Adebowale attended Kidbrooke
School in Greenwich, where friends said he was a “normal, smiling teenager”.
Luqman Ciise, one of his schoolmates, said: “I knew him personally, he was
normal, smiling all the time. His name was Toby… Still can’t believe this.”
According to a friend he and
his girlfriend, a fellow convert, became well-known in south-east London for
handing out extremist leaflets.
Adebowale’s father now works
for the Nigerian High Commission in a flat just yards from Holloway prison in
North London. His flat was raided on Thursday morning.
A neighbour said: “He has
lived here for at least ten years. He is a very smart and polite man, who is
known to everyone as Niyi. On Thursday morning I was woken up by the sound of
banging and shouts of ‘armed police’. I looked out and police were running into
Niyi’s flat.
“I then heard them shout ‘No
firearms and No drugs’. I have got no idea what happened to Niyi, but I haven’t
seen him since.
“It came as a big shock
because he is a professional man who works at the Nigerian High Commission. He
leaves everyday in a collar and tie and does not get home until about 8pm.”
Source: The Telegraph
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