Lawrence Nomanyagbon Anini, Nigeria’s acclaimed most
notorious armed robber, was born sometimes in 1960. He terrorised the old
Bendel State, especially its capital, Benin City in the 1980s, but in 1986, his
robbery exploits reached a terrific level that it became a national issue. He
operated along with his lieutenant, Monday Osunbor, and others. However, one
striking feature in the Anini reign of terror was the police complicity. It was
soon discovered that the Anini gang had insiders within the police hierarchy of
which George Iyamu, a Deputy Superintendent of Police, was their arrowhead.
Anini, dreadfully called ‘The Law’ or ‘Ovbigbo’, was born in
a village about 20 miles from Benin City. He migrated to Benin at an early age,
learned to drive and became a skilled taxi driver in a few years. He became
known in Benin motor parks as a man who could control the varied competing
interest among motor park touts and operators.
He later resorted to criminal
acts in the city and soon became a driver and transporter for gangs, criminal
godfathers and thieves. Later on, he decided to create his own gang and they
started out as car hijackers, bus robbers and bank thieves. Gradually, he
extended his criminal acts to other towns and cities far north and east of
Benin.
The complicity of the police is believed to have triggered
Anini’s reign of terror in 1986. In early 1986, two members of his gang were
tried and prosecuted against an earlier under-the-table ‘agreement’ with the
police to destroy evidence against the gang members. The incident, and Anini’s
view of police betrayal, is believed to have spurred retaliatory actions by
Anini. In August, 1986, a fatal bank robbery linked to Anini was reported in
which a police officer and others were killed. That same month, two officers on
duty were shot at a barricade while trying to stop Anini’s car. During a span
of three months, he was known to have killed nine police officers.
Anini’s exploits
In an operation in August of 1986, the Anini team struck at
First Bank, Sabongida-Ora, where they carted away N2, 000. But although the
amount stolen was seen as chicken feed, they left the scene with a trail of
blood. Many persons were killed.
On September 6, same year, the Anini gang snatched a Peugeot
504 car from Albert Otoe, the driver of an Assistant Inspector General of
Police, Christopher Omeben. In snatching the car, they killed the driver and
went to hide his corpse somewhere. It was not until three months later that the
skeleton of the driver was spotted 16 kilometers away from Benin, along the
Benin-Agbor highway. A day after this attack, Anini, operating in a Passat car
believed to have been stolen, also effected the snatching of another Peugeot
504 car near the former FEDECO office, in Benin.
Two days after, the Anini men killed two policemen in
Orhiowon Local Government of the state. Still in that month, three different
robbery attacks, all pointing to Anini’s involvement, took place. They include
the murder of Frank Unoarumi, a former employee of the Nigerian Observer
newspapers; the killing of Mrs. Remi Sobanjo, a chartered accountant, and the
stealing of the Mercedes Benz car in Benin, of the Ughelli monarch, the Ovie.
Before September, 1986 drew to a close, Anini, now steaming
hot and an elusive dread, struck at a gas station along Wire Road, Benin, where
he stole a substantial part of the day’s sales. He shot the Station’s attendant
and gleefully started spraying his booty along the road for people to pick.
The height of Anini’s exploits, however, took place on
October 1, 1986, the Independence Day when the state’s Commissioner of Police,
Casmir Igbokwe was ambushed by the gang in Benin, and nearly yanked off his
nose in a hail of bullets. The police boss survived the attacks with serious
injuries. Earlier that day also, the Anini men had gunned down a police man
within the city
Also, on October 21 of same year, the Anini robbery gang
terminated the life of a Benin-based medical doctor, A.O Emojeve when they
gunned him down along Textile Mill Road, in Benin. Not done, Anini and gang
went and robbed the Agbor branch of African Continental Bank and carted away
about N46, 000. A day after the operation, Anini, The Law, turned to a ‘Father
Christmas’ as he strew wads of naira notes on the ground for free pick by
market men and women at a village near Benin.
Anini’s image thus loomed larger than life, dwarfing those
of Ishola Oyenusi, the king of robbers in the 1970s and Youpelle Dakuro, the army
deserter who masterminded the most vicious daylight robbery in Lagos in 1978,
in which two policemen were killed. Anini thus spear-headed a four-month reign
of terror between August and December 1986. Anini also reportedly wrote
numerous letters to media houses using political tones of Robin Hood-like
words, to describe his criminal acts.
My friend, where is Anini?
Worried by the seeming elusiveness of Anini and his gang
members, the military President, General Ibrahim Babangida then ordered a
massive manhunt for the kingpin and his fellow robbers. The police thus went
after them, combing every part of Bendel State where they were reportedly
operating and living. The whole nation was gripped with fear of the robbers and
their daredevil exploits.
However, Police manhunt failed to stop their activities; the
more they were hunted, the more intensified their activities became.
Some of the locals in the area even began to tell stories of
their invincibility and for a while, it felt like they were never going to be
caught.
However, at the conclusion of a meeting of the Armed Forces
Ruling Council in October 1986, General Babangida turned to the Inspector-
General of Police, Etim Inyang, and asked, ‘My friend, where is Anini?’.
At about this time, Nigerian newspapers and journals were
also publishing various reports and editorials on the ‘Anini Challenge’, the
‘Anini Saga’, the ‘Anini Factor’, ‘Lawrence Anini – the Man, the Myth’, ‘Anini,
Jack the Ripper’, and ‘Lawrence Anini: A Robin Hood in Bendel’. The Guardian
asked, emphatically, in one of its reports: ‘Will they ever find Anini, “The
Law”?’.
His arrest
Finally, it took the courage of Superintendent of Police,
Kayode Uanreroro to bring the Anini reign of terror to an end. On December 3,
1986, Uanreroro caught Anini at No 26, Oyemwosa Street, opposite Iguodala
Primary School, Benin City, in the company of six women. Acting on a tip-off
from the locals, the policeman went straight to the house where Anini was
hiding and apprehended him with very little resistance. Uanreroro led a crack
10-man team to the house, knocked on the door of the room, and Anini himself,
clad in underpants, opened the door.
“Where is Anini,” the police officer
quickly enquired. Dazed as he was caught off guard and having no escape route,
Anini all the same tried to be smart. “Oh, Anini is under the bed in the inner
room”. As he said it, he made some moves to walk past Uanreroro and his team.
In the process, he shoved and head-butted the police officer but it was an
exercise in futility.
Uanreroro promptly reached for his gun, stepped hard on
Anini’s right toes and shot at his left ankle. Anini surged forward but the
policemen took hold of him and put him in a sitting position.
They then pumped
more bullets into his shot leg and almost severed the ankle from his entire
leg. Already, anguished by the excruciating pains, the policemen asked him,
“Are you Anini?” And he replied, “My brother, I won’t deceive you; I won’t tell
you lie, I’m Anini.” He was from there taken to the police command headquarters
where the state’s Police Commissioner, Parry Osayande, was waiting. While in
the police net, Anini who had poor command of English and could only
communicate in pidgin, made a whole lot of revelations. He disclosed, for
instance that Osunbor, who had been arrested earlier, was his deputy, saying
that Osunbor actually shot and wounded the former police boss of the state,
Akagbosu
Anini was shot in the leg, transferred to a military
hospital, and had one of his legs amputated. That was after Monday Osunbor was
also captured.
When Anini’s hideout was searched, police recovered assorted
charms, including the one he usually wore around his waist during “operations”.
It was instructive that after Anini was captured and
dispossessed of his charms, the man who terrorised a whole state and who was
supposed to be fearless suddenly became remorseful, making confessions. This
was against public expectation of a daredevil hoodlum who would remain defiant
to the very end.
Revelations on Iyamu, others
Shortly after the arrest of Anini and co, the dare-devil
robbers began to squeal, revealing the roles played by key police officers and
men, in the aiding and abetting of criminals in Bendel State and the entire
country. Anini particularly revealed that Iyamu, who was the most senior police
officer shielding the robbers, would reveal police secrets to them and then,
give them logistic supports such as arms, to carry out robbery operations. He
further revealed that Iyamu, after each operation, would join them in sharing
the loot. It was further exposed how Iyamu planned to kill Christopher Omeben,
an Assistant Inspector-General of Police in charge of Intelligence and
Investigation. But Iyamu was later to be disappointed as the assailants
dispatched to eliminate Omeben were only able to kill his driver, Otue, a
sergeant.
Iyamu, whom the robbers fondly referred to as ‘Baba’,
reportedly had choice buildings in Benin City; being how he invested the loots
he obtained from men of the underworld
Trial and execution
Due to amputation of his leg, Anini was confined to a
wheelchair throughout his trial. Iyamu, on his part, denied ever knowing and
collaborating with Anini, but Anini The Law furiously retorted, “You are a
shameless liar!” Anini had accused him before Justice James Omo-Agege in the
High Court of Justice, off Sapele Road in Benin City. Of the 10 police officers
Anini implicated, five were convicted. The robbery suspects, including Iyamu,
were sentenced to death. But in passing his judgement, Justice Omo-Agege
remarked, “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.” Their execution took place on March 29, 1987
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