The Benin Kingdom is one of the most legendary in Black Africa,
very rich in culture and tradition. In
its thousands of years of existence it was so menacingly disturbed by a single
bandit, Anini ‘the Law’, that the Oba of Benin, Omo N’Oba N’Edo Uku
Akpolokpolo, Erediauwa I, was visibly disturbed as his people were mercilessly
slaughtered, killed, raped, robbed and maimed this young desperado that
everyone, including the government, feared . The highly-revered Oba called a
meeting with his council of traditional chiefs. The Oba then ordered all his
Bini subjects to make supplications to the gods for the reign this young man to
end. The Oba also called on the security agencies to try their best to fish out
the brains behind the dastardly acts threatening to turn pristine Benin into
something else.
On the 23rd of August 1986, something bizarre happened in
Bendel (Edo/Delta)State, Nigeria. A prince of the Benin royal family, Prince Kingsley
Eweka, and an aristocrat by birth and virtue of belonging to one of Africa’s
oldest and most revered monarchies was bundled to the Ikpoba Hill (Ekenwan
Road) firing range. But something very interesting happened shortly before he
was killed and thundered: ‘My friend and his boys
will avenge my death!’
But the executioners, who did not know those Eweka was
ranting about, thought it was just the paranoid prattle of a man facing a sure
death. But the prince was not blabbing. The whole of Nigeria would soon hear of
his ‘friend and his boys’…. And it was indeed a very bloody revenge, the rise Lawrence
Anini and company
The year 1986.October was the month. The iron-fisted
military junta of Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida was rattled by a 26-year-old man
who could not even speak a single sentence in English, not to talk of write a
line of grammar. The gap-toothed Nigerian military president was furious and he
summoned his highest-ranking police chiefs.
Some hundreds of kilometers away from the cosy and secured
chambers of IBB’s Armed Forces Revolutionary Council where the high-powered meeting
was going on, in the ancient city of Benin, everyone was bathed in fear and it
was very palpable Bendel State lived under the dark blanket of sheer terror
spread by this young man who spoke only Pidgin English and his local dialect .
Everything was tried to capture this elusive figure but nothing worked and he
continued to unleash unspeakable horror upon the defenceless citizens.
Welcomes to the underworld to the world of the legendary
and almost mythical LAWRENCE NOMAYAGBON ANINI, a celebrity armed robber that
made dummies out of the Nigerian police in the 80′s. Lawrence Anini whose gangs
caused fear and terror in Edo/Delta of today. aka ‘The Law’,’The Governor’, Ovbiudu
(the Lion-Hearted), ‘Robin Hood of Africa’, ‘The Unbeatable’,’The Robber’s
Robber’,the man who would later etch his name in ugly and scrawl black ink in
history as Nigeria’s most notorious armed robber, after Dr. Oyenusi greatest
Nigerian armed robber in history and number one Nigeria armed robber.
Babangida had been thoroughly embarrassed by the Anini saga
then that he faced his Inspector-General of Police, Etim
Inyang and asked him: ‘My friend, where is Anini?’
A challenged Inyang replied: ‘We shall find him soon.’
Ironically, Inyang never did. He saw retired from service November 1986 (his retirement notice was
previously announced in October 1986 and it is still not clear whether his
retirement was mandatory or voluntary) and the lot fell of the next IGP,
Mohammed Gambo Jimeta who told journalists upon becoming the new police top
boss on the 1st November, 1986: ‘I would catch Anini very soon.’
Following Anini’s capture, the Daily Times (8th
December, 1986) fired back at the BBC:‘President Babangida controlled 17 states
while while Anini Suzerainty held sway in the remaining two states, Bendel and
Lagos. The grievous implication of BBC’s scathing news items was that Nigeria
was a country where security of life and property could not be assured and that
the atmosphere was not fertile for foreign investment. No thanks to the
dastardly acts of a mean criminal called Anini. The BBC should swallow its
words.’
EARLY LIFE
Born around 1962 (some records indicate 1960), Nigeria’s
most legendary armed robber hailed from the town of Orogho, one of the seven
communities in the oil-rich Orogho Dukedom in Orhionmwon Local Government Area
of Edo State (then, it was called Bendel State which was later split into Edo
and Delta States on the 27th of August 1991 by the Ibrahim Babangida regime).
Orhionmwon is about 20 miles from Benin City and is headed by the Enogie (Duke)
a blood relation of the Oba of Benin. Anini was born into the Owuo family
quarters. An only son of his Evbueisi-born mother, he had two
sisters.
Little Anini was brought to Benin where he was admitted at the
Oza Primary School but from a young age, he started manifesting the signs of
truancy. He struggled to finish his primary school then entered the Igiedumu
Secondary School. He did not spend more than three years when he dropped out of
school, preferring to be an apprentice at a local mechanic workshop. That was
around 1976. But after about three months, his master, David Isiokherhe, booted
him out of the workshop. Anini had started stealing.
On that fateful day, a sum of N7 (seven naira) belonging to
one of the other apprentices at the workshop suddenly vanished like a Lockheed
Martin F-22 Raptor. The frantic owner raised an alarm upon discovering that his
money was missing.
But the criminal lad called Anini would not confess. He lied
that the money was given to him by his mother to procure some medications for
her. Isiokherhe then threatened to bring out some ‘voodoo‘ to
identify and nail the culprit. At that juncture, Anini owned up and confessed
to the theft. A search was conducted and N5 was found on Anini. His master
fired him as an apprentice.
Anini’s father died when he was still a young boy, he would
later be raised by an uncle he came to regard as his father. Later on, he would
leave the village for the city of Benin in search of greener pasture. He
started work as a lorry driver (some say taxi driver) after his master fired
him and slowly transformed into a leader of the local motor parks, controlling
and commanding touts. When politics came back to the arena in 1979, the
politicians found good use of Anini as a political thug and his hooliganism
paid off with him learning the mastery of firearms use in the process.
FORMED HIS ROBBERY GANG
Later, following the sudden overthrow of the politicians in
the early 1980s and banning of politics in 1984, the highly-skilled driver,
discovered that armed robbery was far more lucrative and decided to form his
own deadly gang. He sealed a pact with corrupt police officers Inspector
George Iyamu, he was the senior Cop that made Anini’s robbery career successful
and ruled with reckless abandon.
Anini confessed that he was introduced to the ‘trade’ by one
Friday Agbonifo (dead as at the time Anini was captured). He formed his own
group comprises of Prince kingsley Eweka, Monday Osunbor ,and top cop Inspector
George Iyamu. By August 1986, Anini had metamorphosed into a full-time
snitching monster.
THE BLOODBATH
-It was on the 14th of August, 1986. Anini was driving a
stolen Peugeot 504 and when he was flagged down by policemen at the
Jeromi-Edebiri junction, he fired at the officers without thinking. By the time
the policemen were taken to the Central Hospital, two of them were already
dead.
But like a man possessed by the very evil of the Devil
himself, Anini was also believed to carry out another car snatching near the
Federal Electoral Commission (FEDECO)office in Benin (another Peugeot 504) the
next day after AIG of police Omeben’s driver had been abducted (see below), in
the first week of September. Omeben was in Benin to work on the Anini case.
Anini was suspected to have used a Passat TS vehicle for this particular
operation (of course, the Passat too was believed to have been pilfered).
Barely 48 hours after the Passat incident,
Anini stormed his own local government area (Orhionmwon) and by the time the
hapless people knew what had hit them, Anini and his death squad had pumped
bullets into two police officers. A string of three different armed robberies
would then follow and all fingers pointed at Lawrence (his nickname The Law is
a shortened form of his name).
-In one of Anini’s operations, the Mercedes Benz 200
(registered BD 1 HA) of the Ogbogbovmen II, the Ovie (King) of Ughelli was
stolen in Benin. Actually, the monarch in full regalia in his car before he was
swooped upon by Anini’s gang and he was dragged out of the car. They ensured
that they meted out some measure of disgrace upon the helpless traditional
ruler before they made away with his glittering Mercedes. As the King took a
hired taxi back to his palace, he was wondering if it was one very bad dream.
Yes, it was a nightmare and it was called Anini.
-A chartered accountant named Mrs. Remi Shobanjo who was
also the President of the Ugbowo Lioness Club, was murdered while a former
worker and Staff Writer with the Nigerian Observer, Mr.
Frank Unoarumi, was also killed and they made away with his Peugeot 505. When
Anini and his gang reached the office of the Shobanjos, they banged the door
with all the fury left in Hell and then started firing at the door. They
arrived the Adesogbe Street office around 7.40 in the evening.
The terrified couple inside the room did not know what to do
and decided to be silent and not open the door. Then they continued firing at
the door until it gave way. A bullet sped in and lodged itself near the poor
woman’s heart. Before she knew what hit her, Mrs. Shobanjo was dead. She died
on the spot. Then they entered, stole N200, the couple’s Peugeot 504 (later
found in Aghalokpe, Delta State) which they drove off with, after making away
with some documents too.
Between 5th and 9th September, 1986, Anini and his gang made
it clear that they were not joking. The attacked two police stations and posts
at Abudu (the seat of his own local government area) where he killed a police
sergeant and father of seven named Daniel Omedew, took his pistol and went away
with other weapons in the station. Then he and his devilish train moved to Ugo
town where Corporal Lucky Ogieva was not lucky at all, falling to their
bullets. By the time they left, two officers of the Nigerian Police had been
killed in cold blood and many more escaped with varying degrees of injuries.
On Independence Day (1st October, 1986), he fired another
salvo of surprise at Nigerians when he waylaid a man, , in Benin around 9 pm and
shot the cartilage of his nose, which almost fell off. A reflex turning of his
head saved Akagbosu’s life. His head was just centimetres away from the
speeding bullets. That night was real evening of terror as Anini’s superior
weaponry blasted off with brutal efficiency, shattering the calm peace of a
Benin populace preparing to sleep.
But Akagbosu was no ordinary citizen, he was actually the
State’s Commissioner of Police and he had just been attacked in his new Peugeot
504 right at a spot just about 100 metres from a police roadblock. With a
shattered nose, he managed to survive the attack with other injuries and it
must be noted that earlier that day, Anini’s men had gone round town that same
day, even killing a policeman in the process. He was a pack of sheer terror,
violence and destruction and I believe that at a point, he must have believed
that he would never be caught, that he was on top of the world, with the globe
at his sinewy feet.
Anini , not only terrorized the ordinary citizens but dare the
then Commissioner of Police , Mr. Casmir Akagbosu, who was seated in a station
wagon flanked by two officers, his aides: one Sergeant Ojo and Corporal Ogbe
Zechariah. All of a sudden, they were under a volley of fierce bullets coming
from all directions. Anini and his boys again! Luckily for Akagbosu but
unluckily for his assistants, his two aides received all the hits on their
limbs and thighs. The driver, Constable Paulinus Oweh was not that lucky. He
was hit in the head and his limp body collapsed on the seat, with blood gushing
out of the point of impact. An unidentified MOPOL (mobile policeman) seating in
front with the driver however escaped untouched. The sudden attack left the
Commissioner and his boys completely flabbergasted and could not mount any
reasonable response on time. At that point, the legend of Anini, the man who
attacked a Police Commissioner spread far and wide all over Nigeria.
Demoralized policemen would become hypertensive at the mere mention of Anini. That
would make the second attack on Mr. Casmir Akagbosu.
After his narrow escape at Ekiosa Market, one would have
thought that Anini and his gang would lie low for a while but no, not the
Ovbiudu of Bendel. On the 22nd of October, 1986, Anini and his gang left the
city of Benin and launched a daredevil armed robbery in another town named
Agbor. Upon landing in Agbor, the ‘action’ men launched their assault on the
African Continental Bank branch in the kingdom. This was one of his most
classic and dramatic robberies. Upon entering the bank, Anini first introduced
himself with all majesty.
Then he ordered everyone to take their valuable cash
deposits to his Santana car parked outside. After barking out the commands, he
calmly strolled to a nearby bar and demanded for a chilled bottle of beer. By
the time the operation ended, Anini was N40,000 richer (some accounts say
N46,000). Then, Anini, a man given to illogical festivities, drove off and went
to feast men and marketwomen at Oka and he spoilt them with naira notes which
he sprayed as if money rained from heaven. Anini then lamented the poor state of the economy,
inflation, expensive education fees and even proffered solutions“Tell our President, we like him but we are not happy
here in BendeI. The payment for everything is too much. That is why I now
divide any money I get to the people. Ask them.’’
CAPTURED
For a man who terrorized an entire region of Nigeria with
reckless abandon, his capture was indeed very humourous. Many would love to
think that Anini was hunted down and captured by a battalion of heavily-armed
soldiers and policemen but the interesting is that his end was brought about by
the action of a single and extremely-determined police officer named Kayode
Uanreroro, who was then a superintendent in the police force, who led a
relatively small team of 10 mobile policemen (considering the fact that Anini’s
gang can be almost twice that on some operations), with him being the arrowhead
of the whole capture and arrest operation.
On the 3rd of December, 1986, a Wednesday, around 1pm,
Uanreroro traced Anini to his hideout at No. 26, Oyemwonsa Street, opposite
Iguodala Primary School on the Murtala Muhammed Way in Benin City, he had got
vital information from the locals (today, people are even afraid to take part
in community policing because na you wey talk to police dem go first arrest).
Uanreroro went back to the police command to relay the information of Anini’s
precise location. The police wanted to be 101% sure. Mistakes had got them
nothing but bullets and ridicule in the past. Osayande (the Police
Commissioner) sent a lady in disguise to ascertain and confirm Anini’s
location. Her response was positive.
A reinforced Uanreroro returned to the building after his
‘recon’ operation. As usual, Anini was ‘chopping the life of his head’ with six
rumbustious women in the room, one of whom was named Florence that Uanreroro
shot in the leg as she ran out of the house to the backyard as he entered. The
house belonged to Florence’s father, Jackson Aideyan. Anini had a weakness for
women and apart from using them as his tools of pleasure, he also used them for
his condemnable operations.
Uanreroro, described by Osayande as being ‘brave and
energetic’ went straight to the house that contained Anini and served as his
hideout around 2pm with his team surrounding the hideout. He knocked and guess
who opened the door? Yes, it was Anini himself, wearing nothing but his
underpants. His instincts must have told him the game was up but like a
drowning man, he would still clutch at straws. With a thousand thoughts flying through
Anini’s mind, Uanreroro then demanded sharply without wasting time:
He was then whisked off inside a police Land Rover into the
waiting hands of Parry Osayande, the State Commissioner of Police.
Upon facing the journalists, Anini denied he ever killed anyone,
he said:
I am Anini. I no dey kill
people. I only threaten people for their money. If you like, you give me, if
you no like, forget am. I no shoot people. Na only Monday Osunbor (his
second-in-command) dey shoot (kill) people.
As the laws stated then, Anini faced the Armed Robbery
and Firearms Tribunal (put in place by the military) and he was found guilty.
Subsequently, he was condemned to death by the firing squad. Same for his
cohorts and Iyamu. The military governor of the state, Inienger, approved and
signed his execution papers (why am I suddenly thinking of Governor Oshiomhole?
LOL!) and that was how Anini’s world came to a screeching halt. While giving
the judgment, Justice Omo-Agege then stated: “Anini will forever be remembered
in the history of crime in this country, but it would be of unblessed memory.
Few people if ever, would give the name to their children.”
THE
INVESTIGATORS
The robbery case of Anini was handled by the outspoken and
retired commissioner of police, Alhaji Abubakar Tsav. He was assigned to
investigate the case of the dreaded robber. On his team then was Abubakar
Mohammed (who is now the current Inspector-General of the Nigerian Police),
officer Zubairu (who retired as a Chief Superintendent of Police) and the late
ID Muntari. In a February 2013 interview with Punch, Tsav revealed that he
was not the one who arrested Anini but an Assistant Commissioner of Police
named Uanreroro . However, he was the one who oversaw the entire investigative
case that led to the conviction of Anini, his killer partner, Monday Osunbor
who did read pass secondary school Form IV, his police accomplice, George Sam
Iyamu who was an Assistant Superintendent of Police (Iyamu made the obnoxious
history of becoming the first high-ranking officer in the Nigeria Police to be
indicted of robbery) and others.
As at the time Anini and his gang were executed, Anini reigned
for about three years only and
records show that none of them could have been older than 29. Monday Osunbor’s age was listed as 22. They were all quite young and that also brings to mind the case of another notorious thief, Babatunde Folorunsho who was executed on the 21st of April, 1971 at the age of 23.
records show that none of them could have been older than 29. Monday Osunbor’s age was listed as 22. They were all quite young and that also brings to mind the case of another notorious thief, Babatunde Folorunsho who was executed on the 21st of April, 1971 at the age of 23.
EXECUTION
On the 29th of March, 1986, the myth of Anini ‘the Law’
came to a fiery end
Let me die reaping what I
have sown-Anini last statement
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