{UAH} THE GREATEST THIEF IN NIGERIA

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. By 1986, his robbery exploits had reached such a terrible level that it became a national issue. In fact, his reign was so bloody that he was even discussed at the State Security Council meeting.

Anini was born around 1960 in the present day Edo state. 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 couldn't finish secondary school as he dropped out in 1976 preferring to be an apprentice at a local mechanic workshop. After his master fired him, he started work as a taxi driver and slowly transformed into a leader of the local motor parks, controlling and commanding touts.

Following the overthrow of the civilian government in 1983 by General Muhammadu Buhari, the highly skilled driver discovered that armed robbery was far more lucrative and he later to criminal acts in the city and soon became a driver and transporter for gangs, criminal godfathers and thieves. He later 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 agreement enhanced Anini's operation and he tagged the police as 'his friend.' He engaged in highway robberies, car jacking, bank raid etc without hurting policemen.

The police continued to be Anini's friend until early 1986 when 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. In retaliation to what Anini saw as a betrayal, he started killing policemen who stood in his way during bank robberies. During a span of three months, he was known to have killed nine police officers.

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. The skeleton of the driver was found 3 months later along the Benin-Agbor highway. 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. He also reportedly wrote numerous letters to media houses using political tones of Robin Hood-like words, to describe his criminal acts. 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, followed by a hail of bullets. The police boss survived the attack with serious injuries. Earlier that day also, the Anini men had gunned down a police man within the city.

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. 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.

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 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."

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. Due to amputation of his leg as a result of numerous gunshots, Anini was confined to a wheelchair throughout his trial. He was sentenced to death by Justice James Omo-Agege and executed by firing squad on March 29, 1987.

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"War is nothing but a  continuation of political intercourse, with a mixture of other means. Man will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest." 

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