{{Suspecting a sinister motive in the identification of an attacker on a British soldier as a Nigerian, Nigerians in the United Kingdom (UK) Thursday disowned Michael Mujahid Adebolajo.}}<\/p>\n
The soldier, who was identified as Drummer Lee Rigby, 25 years old from the City of Manchester, joined the army in 2006 and later served in Afghanistan. He was allegedly murdered by two suspected Islamists on a London street on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Outraged at the development, Prime Minister David Cameron Thursday vowed that Britain would be resolute against violent extremism.<\/p>\n
Cameron also declared that the vicious act by the two suspected Islamists \u2013 whom media reports and Internet sources believed to be Britons of Nigerian descent \u2013 was an attack on Britain and a betrayal of Islam.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis was not just an attack on Britain and on the British way of life. It was also a betrayal of Islam and of the Muslim communities who give so much to our country,\u201d agency reports quoted the prime minister as saying.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is nothing in Islam that justifies this truly dreadful act.\u201d<\/p>\n
But Nigerians in the UK have said one of the suspects in the Woolwich attack, Adebolajo, is not a Nigerian but a British citizen as Metropolitan police officers raided a house in a Lincolnshire village belonging to the Adebolajos.<\/p>\n
Reacting in a statement, a chieftain of Nigerians in Diaspora, UK, Sam Onigbanjo, said: \u201cThe beheading was done by a British citizen and not a Nigerian as speculated, his name does not confirm his nationality.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis lunatic was born in the United Kingdom, never been to Nigeria. He was issued a birth certificate in the UK and held a British passport. Suddenly, he is now a Nigerian? This guy is not a Nigerian-British born.\u201d<\/p>\n
Onigbanjo noted that \u201cbecause the accused is not Gabriel Agbonlahor playing for Aston Villa and Three Lions, or Andrew Osagie, UK\u2019s reigning 800m champion, or Lawrence Okoye, British Discus Record Holder (68.24m), or Abiodun Oyepitan, British Olympic Silver and Gold Medalist, or Christine Ohuruogu, Beijing Olympic British Gold Medalist, or Eniola Aluko, British Olympic Female Football star, or Temi Fagbenle, British Olympic Basketball queen, or several other thousands of British citizens with Nigerian connection who are making the country proud, it is being made to look like Nigeria has shown itself again over the action of the British boy who beheaded a soldier yesterday.\u201d<\/p>\n
Also, a North London-based non-governmental organisation (NGO), African Partnership Development (APD), has strongly condemned the actions of one of the two murder suspects.<\/p>\n
In a statement made available to The Guardian, APD said suspect Adebolajo was not in any way a representative of the Nigerian community. According to the statement, \u201cAPD wishes to condemn the barbaric act of the murder suspects, Michael Adebolajo, a British born to Nigerian parents and his accomplice. The killing is abominable, unacceptable and very barbaric.\u201d<\/p>\n
In another statement made available to The Guardian, the National Association of Nigerian Communities (NANC) condemned the action of Adebolajo and his yet to be identified accomplice.<\/p>\n
The statement of condemnation signed by the National President, Martins Bakare and the Publicity Secretary, Owoeye Olabanji, reads: \u201cOn behalf of the National Association of Nigerian Communities (NANC) UK, our condolences are with the families and friends of the victim. Such an act is nothing short of barbarism of misguided minds, who have put a huge shame on their family, friends and the community at large.<\/p>\n
It is saddened to note that both suspects, Michael Adebolajo and the other, are of Nigerian descent.\u201d NANC said it hoped it was an \u201cisolated\u201d act and that the duo must be made to account for their acts.<\/p>\n
In Nigeria, President Goodluck Jonathan expressed shock at the attack.<\/p>\n
He conveyed his sincere condolences to the British Prime Minister David Cameron and the British people over the development and shared their grief.<\/p>\n
The Muslim Council of Britain described the murder as \u201ca truly barbaric act that has no basis in Islam.\u201d<\/p>\n
Besides, late Wednesday, around 250 members of the anti-Islamist English Defence League were involved in minor scuffles with police at a train station in Woolwich, while two men were arrested overnight after separate attacks on mosques in southeast England.<\/p>\n
Security has been strengthened at all army barracks in London. The British flag was lowered over the Woolwich barracks \u2013 which was the venue for shooting events at the London 2012 Olympics \u2013 and flowers have been laid outside.<\/p>\n
After chairing a meeting of security chiefs the day after the soldier was hacked to death in a broad daylight, Cameron said Britain\u2019s communities would unite in condemning the attack.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis country will be absolutely resolute in its stand against violent extremism and terror,\u201d he told reporters outside his Downing Street office.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis was not just an attack on Britain and on the British way of life. It was also a betrayal of Islam and of the Muslim communities who give so much to our country.\u201d<\/p>\n
Already, a house in a Lincolnshire village was yesterday raided by Met police officers investigating the alleged terror attack in Woolwich.<\/p>\n
According to The Mail, Adebolajo was identified as the alleged killer and he was seen ranting on video shortly after the murder of the soldier in Woolwich.<\/p>\n
It reported that the men, who are being treated in separate hospitals while under arrest, are most likely to have converted to a radical form of Islam.<\/p>\n
However, as of yesterday, they were not thought to have links to terror groups based in Nigeria, such as Boko Haram.<\/p>\n
Police were seen outside a \u00a3365,000 detached house in a Lincolnshire village where they raided a home where Adebolajo is listed as having lived in the past.<\/p>\n
There was no answer at the address believed to be that of Adebolajo\u2019s father, named by neighbours as Anthony Adebolajo.<\/p>\n
The senior Adebolajo, 56, is believed to be a trained nurse now working in a managerial capacity within the NHS.<\/p>\n
The modern property was being monitored by two police patrol cars stationed outside.<\/p>\n
Later in the morning, plain-clothes officers, thought to be from the Metropolitan Police, arrived at the modern estate and the house and driveway were sealed off with police tape. An officer at the scene described the property as a \u201ccrime scene.\u201d<\/p>\n
Adebolajo reportedly bought the property in 2002. At one time, a woman who wore a burka was thought to live with him.<\/p>\n
Neighbours disclosed that he had up to four grown-up children, although a few if any are thought to have stayed at the house for any period of time.<\/p>\n
Michael Adebolajo was listed as being a resident there in 2004, shortly after the family moved in.<\/p>\n
Wielding knives, including a meat cleaver, two men carried out the attack on Wednesday afternoon near the Royal Artillery Barracks in Woolwich, southeast London, then delivered an Islamist tirade to passers-by.<\/p>\n
Chilling amateur footage of one suspect showed him still holding blood-stained knives, telling a member of the public they killed the victim \u201cbecause Muslims are dying daily\u201d in the hands of British soldiers.<\/p>\n
Speaking in a London accent, Adebolajo, who is black, made various political statements, including a demand for Cameron to \u201cbring our troops back.\u201d<\/p>\n
Shocked eyewitnesses described how the men stayed at the scene after the killing, asking passers-by to photograph and film them.<\/p>\n
\u201cI apologise that women have had to witness this today, but in our lands, our women have to see the same,\u201d said the suspect, who was wearing a hooded jacket and a black woolly hat.<\/p>\n
Media reports citing witnesses said the men first ran over their victim in a car before finishing him off with the knives.<\/p>\n
Several witnesses said he had been decapitated.<\/p>\n
Reports said the victim was wearing a T-shirt bearing the logo of the British military charity Help for Heroes.<\/p>\n
The suspects were shot by police after the attack and spent the night in separate hospitals under armed guard.<\/p>\n
The victim was yet to be formally identified. His murder is the first fatal Islamist attack in Britain since 2005, when suicide bombers killed 52 people on London\u2019s transport network.<\/p>\n
Cameron cut short a visit to Paris in order to chair a meeting of the government\u2019s emergency response committee, COBRA, which had already met in the hours following the attack.<\/p>\n
Defence and interior ministers attended the meeting along with intelligence chiefs, the head of Scotland Yard and London mayor Boris Johnson.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, counter-terrorism police have launched a large-scale investigation into the killing. Officers were conducting searches near the murder scene yesterday, and confirmed that they had raided an address in Lincolnshire, eastern England.<\/p>\n
Cameron declined to comment on reports that the men were previously known to intelligence officials, but he hinted that police and security agencies could face probes into how the attackers slipped under the radar.<\/p>\n
A female scout leader has shot to fame after she confronted the assailants shortly after the attack, telling them: \u201cIt is only you versus many people. You are going to lose.\u201d<\/p>\n
{NgrGuardian}<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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