Both murder suspects were known to the intelligence services and Adebolajo had links to the banned radical Al-Muhajiroun movement, but reports suggest they were not viewed as a deadly threat.
Abu Nusaybah claimed that MI5 called at Adebolajo’s home several times following his return from Kenya asking for information about certain individuals before suggesting that he work for them.
The BBC said that after the interview, Abu Nusaybah, a Muslim, left the television studio to find officers from Scotland Yard’s counter-terrorism unit waiting to arrest him.
The police force later confirmed that a 31-year-old man had been arrested in London on suspicion of the “commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism”.
It is understood the arrest was not directly linked to the soldier’s murder.
The backgrounds of the two murder suspects are remarkably similar, both having been brought up by Nigerian Christians and both having converted to Islam in their teens.
Adebowale’s mother, Juliet Obasuyi, sought help from friends and an imam after growing increasingly concerned about her son, who, like Adebolajo, was handing out extremist literature in the street.
After he dropped out of university nine months ago, she reportedly asked a Muslim neighbour for advice.
“He is from a strong Christian family but he is turning to Islam and turning against the family. He is preaching in the streets,” she was quoted in several newspapers Saturday as telling the man.
“He needs spiritual guidance before he radicalises himself.”
Adebolajo was captured on film shortly after the attack brandishing a bloodied knife and meat cleaver and claiming he had killed the soldier because British forces killed Muslims every day.
The victim’s distraught wife Rebecca, mother to their two-year-old son Jack, said it was hard to accept that he had survived a tour in Afghanistan only to be killed on a British street.
“You don’t expect it to happen when he’s in the UK. You think they’re safe,” she said.
Police meanwhile released two women they had arrested as part of the investigation on Thursday, although a 29-year-old man remains in custody on suspicion of conspiracy of murder.
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