Nigeria
has recorded two types of armed robbers: Lawrence Nomanyagbon Anini and
others. No armed robber has ever held the entire country on ransom as
Anini. In fact, his reign was so bloody that he was even discussed at
the State Security Council meeting.
He held the old Bendel State captive in
the 1980s. Bendel is now known as Edo and Delta State. His main area of
operation was Benin City to be precise.
His early life
Anini was born in a village about 20
miles from Benin City in present-day Edo State.He was dreadfully called
‘The Law’ or ‘Ovbigbo’. An only son of his Evbueisi-born mother, he had
two sisters. His father died when he was still a young boy. 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.
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.
Following the sudden overthrow of the
politicians in the early 1980s and banning of politics in 1984 by
the Buhari regime the highly-skilled driver (now of of criminal gangs
and godfathers) discovered that armed robbery was far more lucrative and
decided to form his own deadly gang which included, Monday Osunbor,
Friday Ofege, Henry Ekponwan, Eweka and Alhaji zed zed or Zegezege who
was never captured.They started out as car hijackers, bus robbers and
bank thieves. He sealed a pact with corrupt police officers and ruled
with reckless abandon. The complicity of the police is believed to have
triggered Anini’s reign of terror in 1986.Highway robberies, car
jackings, bank raids, Anini was a specialist in all aspects of pilfering
with the gun. Gradually, he extended his criminal acts to other towns
and cities far north and east of Benin.
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.
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.
Three months later, 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 Area of the state. Still in that
month, three different robbery attacks, all pointing to Anini’s
involvement, took place.
A day after the operation, Anini,
visited a village near Benin and threw wads of naira notes on the ground
for free pick by market men and women.
Between August and December 1986, he led
a four-month reign of terror. He also reportedly wrote numerous letters
to media houses using political tones of Robin Hood-like words, to
describe his criminal acts.
The search for Anini
The then military President, General
Ibrahim Babangida, saw the nation’s fear for the daredevil and 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
However, 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.
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
The Anini terrror finally came to an end
thanks to the courage of Superintendent of Police, Kayode Uanreroro. On
December 3, 1986, Uanreroro caught Anini at No 26, Oyemwosa Street,
opposite Iguodala Primary School, Benin City, in company with 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.”
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.
The daredevil robbers also revealed that
some policemen assisted them in the criminal operations in Bendel State
and the entire country.
Anini particularly revealed that George
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.
Because of the numerous gunshots, Anini
had one of his legs amputated in a military hospital. When his hideout
was searched, police recovered assorted charms, including the one he
usually wore around his waist during “operations”. All charms were
disposed after his arrest.
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