NOSTALGIA: 'DOCTOR' ISHOLA OYENUSI UNCROWNED EMPEROR OF NIGERIAN ROBBERS

‘Doctor’ Ishola Oyenusi is a name etched in the history of Nigeria as one of the most violent armed robbers, a criminal who unleashed boundless terror on many Nigerians.

OYENUSI: The last moments
Ishola Oyenusi (he called himself Dr. Oyenusi even if he never finished the secondary school), was terrorising all of Lagos, Nigeria’s largest commercial centre.

There was a story of how he snatched his first car on Herbert Macaulay Road in Yaba, Lagos. Why? His girlfriend was broke. He eventually sold the car for N400 but the sad part was that in the process of stealing the car, the poor owner was shot dead. He actually snatched the first car he saw on the road. Such was the ferociounature of his audacity.

Oyenusi’s arrogance was also legendary. In 1970, he was arrested and handcuffed by a police officer. As the policeman was ordering him around, Oyenusi blasted him and thundered: ‘People like you don’t talk to me like that when I am armed. I gun them down.’

Hmmm, but that was not all. Oyenusi was so feared that when the famed movie director, Chief Eddie Ugbomah made a film titled ‘The Rise and Fall of Dr. Oyenusi’ in 1977, there was no one bold enough to come forward to act the role of the armed robber because they feared his members would show them shege. Ugbomah had no other option but to act the role himself with the feature film depicting the senseless violence of armed robberies and the absolutely atrocious manner by which lives of innocent Nigerians were snuffed out.

Actually, Ugbomah was threatened. He received a letter from thieves who invaded and looted his provision store, carting away allthey could. In the letter, they promised to return his goods if he would only stop shooting the film in which he exposed the support received by the armed robbers from their ‘godfathers’ and even high-ranking officers in the Nigerian Armed Forces.

In the 1970s, Oyenusi was no doubt the uncrowned emperor of Nigerian robbers and he is described as the ‘first celebrated armed robber in Nigeria’. He is regarded by some as the pioneer of conventional armed robbery in Nigeria.

 When Oyenusi reigned at the height of his regal confidence, he declared:‘The bullet has no power.‘ As at that time, armed robbers were
condemned to death and thousands joyfully came out to ‘enjoy’ the grisly public executions before the firing squad on the pristine beaches of Lagos.

Although Nigeria no longer has very ‘famous’ bandits and thieves like Anini (at the age of 26, Lawrence Nomayagbon Anini was the most notoriousrobber in Nigeria), Babatunde Folorunsho, Monday Osunbor, Shina Rambo, Buraimoh Jimoh, Oyenusi, ‘Mighty Joe’, ‘Captain Blood’ and George Iyamu (a former Deputy Superintendent of Police who was Anini’s collaborator), armed robbery is nonetheless a major problem in the nation.

THE END

In March 1971, Oyenusi was nabbed by the Nigerian Police after he organized a robbery in which $28,000 (value as at that time) was stolen. They killed a police constable in the process.

 Although the first public execution of robbers had taken place in April 1971, that of Oyenusi and his criminal allies was a special case and the Lagos government took time to prepare the grounds at the Bar Beach.

DOCTOR-ISHOLA-OYENUSI-EXECUTION @ BAR BEACH

By 8.am, officials were already at the execution arena to check the whole place just to ensure that everything went on ‘well’. A combined team of police officers and soldiers struggled to contain the surging crowd of thousands of excited spectators.

At about 9.15 am, a team of Lagos City Council workers came to the execution arena with empty mock coffins which they calmly laid behind the execution stand.

About half an hour later, eight robbers were led to the execution stand… over 30,000 Nigerians trooped to the famous Bar Beach .

While some in the crowd jeered and booed Oyenusi and his Gang of Seven, some of his friends and family members present could not hold back their tears.

As for Oyenusi, he was smiling, smiling to the last but the agony on his face too was unmistakable. But just few minutes before his body was riddled with hot-leaded bullets from stern-faced soldiers of the Nigerian Army, he finally confessed saying: ‘I am dying for the offence I have committed.‘

The soldiers came to a screeching halt and stood at attention by the van. All of a sudden, one of them let out a shrill command! The door was flung open and slowly, Oyenusi appeared from within the darkness of the Black Maria.

 Oyenusi was cloaked in a dark long-sleeved shirt and his hands were tied behind his back. He spotted a pair of dark loafers and his trousers were wrinkled.

As the soldiers grabbed and tied him to the pole, he was still scanning through the crowd. One of the giggling spectators in the crowd whispered to the next ‘Who is he looking for?‘.
Smartly, seven soldiers formed a lethal line in front of Oyenusi. A soldier let out a fierce command to the sharpshooters. All of them took aim at Oyenusi. The next voice reverberated all over Nigeria: ‘Fire!’

Like an electrocuted being, his body shook vigorously as he slumped and went limp around the pole that held his remains.
For a man who said bullets had no power to penetrate his skin, he slumped in seconds, surrendering to the high-velocity missiles directed at his mortal vessel.

However, Oyenusi, who confessed that he joined the armed robbery business in 1959,was not to die alone. He was to end his journey on earth with six of his other gang members whom he had led to their last robbery at the WAHUM factory at Ikeja, Lagos on the 27th March, 1971.

CULLED