S
MALL things matter, but little attention is always
paid to small matter. When Kingsley Eweka, a
prince of Benin was about to be shot for armed
robbery in mid 1986, he craned his neck on the
stake to tell those asking If he had anything to
say: “My friend and his boys will avenge my
death!” A smile slipped out the cheeks of the
questioners: no one knew his friend, and no one
wanted to know. It was a matter for laughter,
and since they could not laugh, they sneered. But
soon, everyone knew Kingsley’s friend in Bendel
State of Nigeria.
Yes, Bendel State. There was once a state in
Nigeria called Bendel. It was the old Benin and
Delta provinces of Western region that was
merged on 8 August, 1963 to become
Midwestern State, and was changed to Bendel
State on 17 March, 1976, That was its name until
27 August, 1991 when it was divided into two:
one part named Edo, and the other now called
Delta. But in 1986,, it was Bendel, and this was
where Kingsley’s friend took his revenge.
The friend was a young man called Lawerence
Anini. He was born in 1960 to the family of Owuo
quarters in Orogbo village, Orhionmwon area of
the state. He was brought to Benin as a toddler
where he attended Oza Primary School, and was
a known truant while in the School. All the same,
he completed the school and got admission to
Igiedumu Secondary School. He was there for
three years before he abandoned it in about 1976
and started learning how to repair motor
vehicles. But he spent only three months in the
mechanic workshop.
What happened was that one day, he was caught
in the act when he stole N7 belonging to one of
his mates in the garage. When he was seen with
the money, he said the money was given to him
by his mother to buy drugs for her, but when
David Isiokherhe, the master of the shop,
threatened that “Juju” would be brought to get
the money, he confessed that he indeed stole the
money. Immediate search revealed that he had
spent N2 out of the money, in less than an hour.
He was summarily dismissed.

When he would be seen later, he had become a
lorry driver, even when he was not 18 years old,
but very popular, though, because of his
expertise on the steering. He was doing this until
politics started in 1979 and he became a full-time
party thug, reaping bountifully from hooliganism.
It was while in this new profession he learnt the
use of firearms and quickly became the leader of
many of the boys. They gave him another name
“Ovbigbo the law”.
So it became easy to switch to armed robbery
when politics was banned in early n1984.
Business was booming, and he was notorious
for reckless spending. Here he met Kingsley, and
they became partner in crime. They were both
friendly with the police too, and that was why he
could not allow his friend to die in vain.
Sometime in July 1986, he started the war with
the Police, and by August, the Police too began a
counter attack.
Two months later, the Police offensive in Benin
City against the prevailing mafia –style armed
robbery ran, on the night of October 1 to a
sudden, explosive climax of gun fire and blood.
At about 9pm and about a hundred meters away
from a police road block along Ring Road in the
heart of the ancient city, rapid gun shots
obviously from superior weaponry, broke the
eerie calmness of the night.

Just like a textbook replay of any of the deadly
efficient attacks of Italy Red Brigade, the notorious
terrorist guerrilla group of the late 70s and like the
Red Brigade’s victims, who were invariably the
cream of the Italian society, the victims of the
Benin shoot-out included Commissioner of Police.
Yes, the Police Chief was shot!
He paid dearly for the attack as his bullet- ridden
private car, a new Peugeot 504 station wagon,
wobbled to a halt, a bullet tore though the ridge
of his nose. Even so, Akagbosu was two times
lucky. Police sources said that the first volley of
shot jolted him into a reflex action; he jerked his
face sideways from its previous straight forward
position to ascertain the direction of the attack.
This unconscious act was all the insurance he
needed against a fatal tragedy because his head,
then turned at a sharp angle, was inches off the
course of the bullet aimed at it.
Akagbosu’s second luck came in another stroke
of circumstance. Seated in the middle
compartment of the station wagon, he was
sandwiched between two of his aides, one
Sergeant Ojo and Corporal Ogbe Zecharaiah. All
other shots which zipped in Akagbosu direction
were received in the limbs and hips by Ojo and
Zecharaiah who involuntarily acted as their boss
shock absorbers.
For Constable Paulinius Oweh, who was behind
the wheel there was no shield against the salvo of
shots. Hit in the head, he slumped in his driver’s
seat, staining it crimson as blood gushed out of
him. An unidentified mobile policeman, who
shared the front seat with Oweh, was
miraculously untouched.

Dd

Just like a textbook replay of any of the deadly
efficient attacks of Italy Red Brigade, the notorious
terrorist guerrilla group of the late 70s and like the
Red Brigade’s victims, who were invariably the
cream of the Italian society, the victims of the
Benin shoot-out included Commissioner of Police.
Yes, the Police Chief was shot!
He paid dearly for the attack as his bullet- ridden
private car, a new Peugeot 504 station wagon,
wobbled to a halt, a bullet tore though the ridge
of his nose. Even so, Akagbosu was two times
lucky. Police sources said that the first volley of
shot jolted him into a reflex action; he jerked his
face sideways from its previous straight forward
position to ascertain the direction of the attack.
This unconscious act was all the insurance he
needed against a fatal tragedy because his head,
then turned at a sharp angle, was inches off the
course of the bullet aimed at it.

Akagbosu’s second luck came in another stroke
of circumstance. Seated in the middle
compartment of the station wagon, he was
sandwiched between two of his aides, one
Sergeant Ojo and Corporal Ogbe Zecharaiah. All
other shots which zipped in Akagbosu direction
were received in the limbs and hips by Ojo and
Zecharaiah who involuntarily acted as their boss
shock absorbers.
For Constable Paulinius Oweh, who was behind
the wheel there was no shield against the salvo of
shots. Hit in the head, he slumped in his driver’s
seat, staining it crimson as blood gushed out of
him. An unidentified mobile policeman, who
shared the front seat with Oweh, was
miraculously untouched.
The Police Commissioner’s entourage, though
armed, simply had no chance against their hard-
hitting assailants. Caught completely unawares,
they were mere sitting ducks for Anini and his
boys.
Earlier in the day, the Police Chief had received an
informant in his office who claimed to have a clue
to how Lawrence Anini, Benin City’s terrorist –
lord of the underworld could be found. Akagbosu
was immediately interested. Together with four
of his trusted aides, he went to town late in the
evening, accompanied by the informant who
was said to have showed him Anini’s den.

Akagbosu dropped his informant at home and
with the other policemen in his entourage, set for
visit to a Reverend Father friend of his, Monsignor
Joseph Omesa of Holy Cross Catholic Church,
Mission Road, Benin. The visit was a brief one,
but on his way home, the police chief wanted to
take one more look at Anini’s hideout. His
inquisitiveness came to an abrupt end with the
first report of shots. A bitter irony- Akagbosu, the
hunter, became the hunted.
The police could not hide; they had to report that
armed robbers nearly killed their Commissioner,
but succeeded in killing his boys, and sending
him to the hospital. It seemed unbelievable, and
the news spread all over Nigeria, that there was a
man named Anini, and that the fear of him was
the beginning of wisdom for any policeman. For
before then, this bloody game had claimed, at
least, the lives of six policemen and a number of
civilians, thrown Benin City into a state of siege
and earned for Anini nation-wide notoriety, fear
and condemnation.
At about 10am on the day Akagbosu was shot,
Anini stamped more fear on a city that was, for a
brief moment, trying to pry itself loose from the
siege of armed robbers with the 26th
independence celebration. Apparently avoiding a
police check-point at the Wire Road lwehen street
junction, Anini driving blue Santana Car he had
stolen a day before from an east-bound motorist,
made a detour through Second Evbiemwen
street, not too far from the Wire Road petrol
station where, three weeks before, he had struck.
Here, Anini ran into a single police constable, who
walked the desolate street. The gangster got
down from his car and, in a show of maniacal
fury, pumped bullets from his submachine gun
into the constable. Anini had earlier taken the
same car to a car wash centre along new Lagos
Road a day earlier, where he had sat down for
about an hour for the car to be washed. This he
did to taunt the police!

Continue o...., u ve got my full attention

Continue o...., u ve my full attention

Anini’s gory saga was full of exploits, many of
which were directed against the police. On
Monday, 11 August 1986, at 3.3Opm, in what
appeared to be one of his few operations outside
Benin, he raided First Bank in Sabongida Ora,
more than 100 kilometers north-east of Benin.
Though he and his gang succeeded in stealing
only N2, 000, they slaughtered three persons on
the spot, including a policeman. Two children
locked up in a house near the bank, were to die
day later from the gang’ stray bullets. The house
became a war zone when a policeman, terrorized
by the gang’s presence, had run there for refuge.
Anini and his men shot indiscriminately at the
house.
On 14 August, 1986, two policemen were shot
dead and two others seriously injured in Benin by
the gang. It was at the check-point at Jeromi-
Edebiri road junction, the police were there and,
Anini was driving by in a stolen 505 Peugeot car.
The police ordered them to come off the vehicle
for a routine check, but Anini replied the request
with a hail of bullets. The policemen were taken to
Central Hospital where two of them were satisfied
dead. On September 9, Anini struck again outside
Benin City. At the Abudu Police Station, in
Orhionmwon local Government area, he gunned
down – Daniel Omedew, a sergeant and father of
seven. He seized the pistol of the slain sergeant
and carted away other weapons kept in the
station.
The blitzkrieg of the robber baron took him to
another Orhionmwon town, Ugo on the same
day. At the town’s police station, Lucky Ogieva, a
corporal, was just another pack of mince-meat
for Anini’s guns. By now, Anini seemed to have
perfected into an art his now notorious ‘cluster
attack” or multiple strikes in a general area on the
same day. For instance, on the same day he
raided Abudu and Ugo, he also gave Benin City
the same a dose of his terror. He snatched a
Peugeot 504 from the driver of Christopher
Omeben, an assistant Inspector General’s (AIG)of
Police, (who was in the city for an official
assignment that was ironically connected with the
tactics and strategies of containing armed
robber’s menace in the state. Albert Otoe, the
Assistant Inspector General’s driver, was
abducted and it was not until 13 September 1986
before the man’s headless body was discovered
in the Umelu area of the city.
The showdown outside Benin in Sabongida Ora,
Abudu and Ugo were exception to Anini general
pattern of operations. Except for the slaughter of
policemen, his operational zones was Benin City
and his style, a combination of cluster attacks and
a touch of terrorism, was as religiously observed
as the maniacal fury that characterized all his
attacks.
Friday a day before his busy schedule in Abudu
Ugo and Benin City, a three-man gang of Anini
led the attack on the Sobanjos. At exactly 7.40
pm, the gang struck at the Adesogbe Street
(former Plymouth Road) office of Mrs. Remi
Sobanjo, a chartered accountant and president of
Ugbowo Lioness Club, Benin City. The gang
banged thunderously on the door of Sobanjo’s
locked office, asking the occupant to open it
immediately or face the alternative of being shot.
Husband and wife agonized over their dilemma
and decided to stay mute, not obeying, not
moving. Then powerful shots, forcefully tearing
holes through the door, landed in the room.
Remi, who ran the little firm of accountants with
her husband, was pierced near the heart by one
of the flying bullets. She couldn’t make out what
hit her. She died instantly.
The gang, who eventually entered the office, took
some N200 and drove off in a Peugeot 504 car
with an Anambra state plate number in front and
an Imo state’s behind. The gang had robbed the
couple of their Peugeot 505 car, cash, cheques
and important documents two weeks earlier. The
car was recovered later in Aghalokpe in the Delta
area of the state.
Yet on the same day, Anini’s ubiquitous long
hand was to be seen in the city. His victim this
time was Frank Unoarumi, a one time staff writer
with the Nigerian Observer and who, until his
fateful encounter with Anini’s gang, was a
personnel manager with Bendel Pharmaceutical
Company in Benin City. Unoarumi was shot dead
at Ogiso Street, off Murtala Mohammed Way, and
his Peugeot 505 car driven away by the robbers.
Anini crowned his three-day offensive on
September 7 with two more strikes.
Operating in a Passat TS car, certainly stolen, he
swooped on Ipoba Slope, near the former
FEDECO office. He robbed the occupants of a
Peugeot 505 car of their belongings in a five-
minute blitz.
Traffic wardens, scared by the daylight terror,
took to their heels amidst the loud celebratory
boast from Anini who was heard to have said:
“Tell them that I am around.”

The anti spam bot is responsible for delaying the completion of this thread! I'm sorry

And true to his word, he was around elsewhere
in the city that day. This time, though, he wasn’t
too lucky. He ran into a full force of the police that
was battle ready. Rather than give fight, he
dashed into the nearby Ekiosa Market where he
mingled with buyers and sellers. The police wary
of wounding or killing innocent citizens could not
shoot and eventually gave up the chase. It was a
close call for the king of the underworld.
Anini’s anthology of violent robberies included the
mid-day attack in Benin City on Ogbogbovmen II,
the Ovie (traditional ruler) of Ughelli, Bendel state’s
second largest oil town. The date was September
1 and the Ovie, who had some business in town,
was seated, bedecked in his royal beads and
other paraphernalia of office, in his Mercedes Benz
200 car, BD I HA, when Anini was said to have
struck. The hapless traditional ruler was dragged
out and subjected to some indignities before he
was made to part with his car. He went back to
his domain in a hired taxi wondering, perhaps,
whether it wasn’t all a dream.
Of all his atrocities, the selective attacks on
policemen stood out as the most remarkable. It
was the popular belief in Benin City that Anini
would kill anything from 50 to 120 policemen
before the end of his crusade against the security
agents. He had told some that the police incurred
his wrath because of a certain business between
him and the police which went sour.
It was all about Kingsley Eweka, whom Anini
fought tooth and nail to free.
Believing with a touch of naivety that once he
bought over the police, Kingsley would be freed,
he was said to have given an undisclosed but
huge sum of money to some officers in the state
police command. Kingsley could not get the
expected freedom as he was later executed. Anini
became livid with rage and swore to kill as many
policemen as suited his fancy.
Police authority denied it, and said they could not
get any details about him.
His address the police had was, ‘’Law
Ovbiudu (the lion-hearted), of No. One
Million, Anywhere Street, within Benin
City, Bendel State!
If the Law’s background was elusive, so also was
his person. In Benin City and its environs, a
thousand and one myths erected an impenetrable
wall around Anini’s personality. He was variously
known to be extra-ordinarily fearless and imbued
with wonderful supernatural powers the like of
which could put their possessor in the class of
the gods. Several people in the city said that Anini
had the supernatural means to vanish into thin air
whenever he liked. They also claimed that the
robber had spiritually-derived bullet-proof body
that allowed him to operate in .the thick of battle
without fear of injury.
It was also generally believed in Benin City that
Anini relied on a mirror of immense magical
powers which he used as a crystal ball. Before he
went on operations, Anini was said to see them
in his mirror and immediately took preemptive
measures to assure his safety. With all these
stories flying around, Anini seemed invincible.
For fear that he would come around and kill them
immediately, no one wanted to talk about him,
except, probably the Oba of Benin, and the police
too were now soliciting the help of the monarch
to get to him. They said it was the “juju- men” of
Benin that were providing him with charms, and
if the Oba would talk to them, Anini would be
history.
The police were saying this because Anini had
become arrogant and once wrote to the manager
of the New Nigeria Bank in one of his show of
terrorist power, that he would visit his bank and
that a sum of N 10,000 should be set aside for
him. The frightened banker sent a save our souls,
SOS, message to the Oba who, in a radio and
television broadcast, appealed to the underworld
King not to do so.

Ride on.

Anini bowed to the royal intervention. In another
letter to the bank which it received on September
24, Anini said: “I am no longer interested in your
N10,000 as I earlier wrote you. I am doing this to
respect the Oba of Benin, following his appeal.”
He copied the letter to the commissioner of
police, the “- + group,” + Group,” the Ugbowo
Unit,” Ikpoba Hill Unit,”“Sakpoba Unit, etc.” And
Anini became the most notorious bandit in the
history of Nigeria, for in August, at the Supreme
Ruling Council’s meeting, the President, Ibrahim
Babangida, had publicly asked the Inspector
General of Police, Etim lnyang: “My Friend, Where
is Anini?”
And the police moved. Plain clothes police officers
combed and mingled with the rural population of
Oroghbo and Evbueisi, Anini’s paternal and
maternal home and villages respectively. The
intention was to pick him if he made the mistake
of going to see his people. Though this did not
yield the required results, the police continued to
mount vigil in his home front believing, perhaps,
that such home coming was a needed
psychological prop for a man under intense
pressure.
But right in Benin, the police instruments of
counterattack appeared quite enormous. They
declared a night curfew, stretching from 10 p.m.
till dawn, and as an incentive, announced a N
10,000 reward for anyone who could give
information leading to the arrest of Anini. The
force also printed wall bills (poster) declaring Anini
wanted.
Mini’s reply was a show of contempt. He derided
the police offer by making one of his own. He
boastfully promised that he would give N30, 000
to whoever could get him arrested. But the police
poster could hardly be seen anywhere in Benin
because ‘Anini is too hot to handle.” -
At the Nigerian Television Authority, NTA Benin,
where some were pasted, Anini reportedly visited
the gatemen and threatened to annihilate them if
he ever saw the poster again. The Poster
vanished within an hour. There were no private
homes in Benin that would readily allow the
poster to be placed on their walls. Even in public
buildings, they were rare, a fact which led to
hundreds of the poster lying unused on the floors
of police headquarters.
What Anini was doing, in effect, was to counter
the police offensive with a reign of terror that had
further swelled the balloon of myths around him.
His various daring attack have overawed the
city’s population. In the resultant reign of fear, his
powers were imagined to be more than human.
This discouraged those who knew about his
whereabouts from squealing on him. Anini
seemed to bask in the infamy that a mention of
his name and, more seriously his presence, gave
rise to in the city. He operated with a panache that
befitted his lawlessness. For instance, he went
about town in the uniform of a police
superintendent and in a show of how much the
symbols of state can be commandeered to
praticalise his criminal impulses, Anini in early
September, seized at gun point a Bendel State
government car with a BDSG registration and
heeded for the Wire Road petrol station. He shot
the station manager in the thigh and made away
with a large sum of money which exact amount
the Attendants said they did not know. Like
Robinhood, Anini threw the money into the air
for the passers-by. Most of the time, he
continued to throw money to the people, saying,
I rob for the masses.”

I would love to make a movie of this guy

Source I noticed you haven't credited the source you coopied this from. won't be happy cos at the moment looks like you are claiming credit for someone's reseach efforts.

Anini d great

Kindly ride on sir

ANINI bowed to the ROYAL intervention... In another letter to the bank which it received on September 24, AnINI said: “I am no longer interested in your N10,000 as I earlier wrote you. I am doing this to respect the OBA of Benin, following his appeal.” He copied the letter to the commissioner of police, the “- + group,” + Group,” the Ugbowo Unit,” Ikpoba Hill Unit,”“Sakponba Unit, etc.” And ANINI became the most notorious bandit in the history of Nigeria, for in August, at the Supreme Ruling Council’s meeting, the President, Ibrahim Babangida, had publicly asked the Inspector General of Police, Etim lnyang: “My Friend, Where is ANINI?” And the police moved. Plain clothes police officers combed and mingled with the rural population of Oroghbo and Evbueisi, ANINI'S paternal and maternal home and villages respectively. The intention was to pick him if he made the mistake of going to see his people. Though this did not yield the required results, the police continued to mount vigil in his home front believing, perhaps, that such home coming was a needed psychological prop for a man under intense pressure. But right in Benin, the police instruments of counter-attack appeared quite enormous. They declared a night curfew, stretching from 10pm till dawn, and as an incentive, announced a N 10,000 reward for anyone who could give information leading to the arrest of ANINI. The force not having a known picture of ANINI also printed wall bills (poster) declaring ANINI wanted.... ANINI'S reply was a show of contempt..... He derided the police offer by making one of his own. He boast fully promised that he would give N30, 000 to whoever could get him arrested. But the police poster could hardly be seen anywhere in Benin because "ANINI is too hot to handle.” - At the Nigerian Television Authority, NTA Benin, where some were pasted, ANINI reportedly visited the gate men and threatened to annihilate them if he ever saw the poster again. The Poster vanished within an hour. There were no private homes in Benin that would readily allow the poster to be placed on their walls. Even in public buildings, they were rare, a fact which led to hundreds of the poster lying unused on the floors of police headquarters. What ANINI was doing, in effect, was to counter the police offensive with a reign of terror that had further swelled the balloon of myths around him. His various daring attack have overawed the city’s population. In the resultant reign of fear, his powers were imagined to be more than human. This discouraged those who knew about his whereabouts from squealing on him. ANINI seemed to bask in the infamy that a mention of his name and, more seriously his presence, gave rise to in the city. He operated with a panache that befitted his lawlessness. For instance, he went about town in the uniform of a police superintendent and in a show of how much the symbols of state can be commandeered to practicalize his criminal impulses, ANINI in early September, seized at gun point a Bendel State government car with a BDSG registration and heeded for the Wire Road petrol station. He shot the station manager in the thigh and made away with a large sum of money which exact amount the Attendants said they did not know. Like Robin hood, ANINI threw the money into the air for the passers-by. Most of the time, he continued to throw money to the people, saying, I rob for the masses.” The police and Governor John Inieger of Bendel State, however, continued to say that ANINI'S days were already numbered. But resident apparently thinking that there was nothing police could do about ANINI, simply made jokes of the situation. A local journalist once said he had an appointment with the governor, and his friend asked: ‘Which of them? Inienger or ANINI?”..... At the Benin police officer’s mess a senior police officer shouted the name of a colleague. “Who is that?” Asked the second officer, ANINI of course,” came the reply. “Then, of course, I’m Ovbigbo, the- law,” shot back the colleague. A third officer shouted in turn:”Hands up. The two of you are under arrest!” While the jokes were on, ANINI continued to conduct himself as a politician storming a constituency for a desperate vote. Though not quite literate, he had been bombarding newspaper houses and the state police with letters expressing his concern over social issues.... Just before Akagbosu was shot, he shot a sergeant in the leg and gave him a letter to deliver to his boss in which he complained about police brutality against students; the closure of Ife University and Kaduna Polytechnic when Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, the cause of the crisis, was reopened; and about pen robbers who were left free while armed robbers were being shot..... ANINI'S letter of September 11 to the editor of the Nigerian Observer, Benin was like an election manifesto. He said “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.’’ He gave six conditions that must be met “for peace to return to police in Bendel.’’ ‘They are to put a stop to the persecution of innocent armed robbers; a stop to police collusion with NURTW (Nigerian Union of Road Transport Workers) and Ogboni cult members; non-harassment by the police of market women returning from village market; abolition of the collection of 5Ok - N5 (by Highway Patrol); equal treatment for everybody; and fair treatment for all legitimate drivers by the police.’’ Of course, ANINI had an eye on the public for sympathy and support and he thought that his "manifesto" would win for him this, but his chief enemy was TIME and the POLICE.... The police had said they would do everything to get ANINI into the cooler. The force quickly replaced Akagbozu, the hospitalised commissioner of police, with Parry Osayande who until then was the Benue State police commissioner.... On arrival, the Governor, John Mark Inienger, gave a million Naira to the police so that fund would not be the hindrance in the ANINI project. And on Wednesday, 15 October 1986, Muhamadu Gambo was appointed the Inspector General of police. With this, the police seemed set to nail the most wanted criminal of the time..... But when the end of his bloody war on the police and people in Bendel State came, LAWRENCE ANINI aka "THE LAW" was a vulnerable man. His gang, the most notorious and feared in the history of violent crime in Nigeria was decimated.... The frequency of his spine-chilling mayhem had become periodic violent assaults. He, too, must have known the end was near....Cos The OBA have made sacrifices to his ancestors and the GODS of the land.....and the GODS of the land which ANINI heavily relied on have turned their back on him.... It eventually happened. It was a Wednesday, 3 December, 1986. "LAWRENCE NOMAYANUKPON ANINI, aka “THE LAW,” Ovbigbo, ended his bloody career in a style that showed graphically that all men are mortal. “I AM ANINI”, he told policemen in a voice which betrayed a pathological fear of death. “Please, take me to the hospital.” His legs had been perforated by police guns.... As blood gushed out of his shattered left ankle and the badly fractured right leg, ANINI was overcome by fear induced by the acute awareness that only an immediate intervention by man’s modem medical “magic” could save him. The man whose disdain for civilised society and all it represents, and who relied heavily on juju, was willing and ready to seek help from anywhere. When the police came for him in the afternoon, ANINI was, as usual, having a good time with six girls whom the Bendel police boss, Parry Osayande - the man who meticulously plotted his downfall- described as always behind the scenes of crimes’’. He was startled- a clear indication that his uncanny sense of timing and cunning had deserted him. He attempted to flee. But this time, the police were prepared. They rained bulltets on him, concentrating their shots on his left ankle to ensure he would have no chance of “VANISHING”. His disappearance or so-called miraculous escapes from so many scenes of bloody shoot-outs with the police had become legendary. Along with the myth of his callous exploits, the legend was finally and, like his left ankle, shattered.

The police assault, carried out by a 10-man team from the mobile unit and led by Chief Superintendent KAYODE UANRERORO, was precise to the finest details. At about 1pm, an informant got wind of ANINI'S presence at a house No. 26 Oyemwonsa Street, opposite Iguodala primary school on Murtala Muhammed Way, Benin City. He went to the police command to relate the news. The pblice reaction was methodical. They wanted to be sure of the information. Misinformation about Anini had led them astray before, earning them public ridicule. Osayande, who had been in charge of the state police command since October 1 when his predecessor, Casmir Akagbosu, was fatally wounded by ANINI'S hoodlums, dispatched the informant and sent a woman (disguised as a daughter of the soil) to confirm the information. Faith seemed to have played tricks on ANINI; he was still there with his bevy of delectable girls. As soon as the confirmation was in, the police swung into action. UANRERORO, whom Osayande described as “brave and energetic”, led his crack 10-man team to the area at 2pm and surrounded the house, a nondescript affair with a coat of faded yellow paint. UANRERORO knocked on the door of the room and ANINI himself, who had only his underpants on, opened it. “where is ANINI?’’ the police officer demanded.... Confronted by the real LAW, ANINI... “The LAW” knew instantly that he was in serious trouble especially given his near utter state of UnCloth and the cut-off of the only route of escape by UANRERORO.... His “VANISHING” power and the GODS of the land must have failed him, but his brain was not “dead” yet. ANINI tried to outwit UANRERORO.... He told him that ANINI “is under the bed in the inner room,” and attempted at the same time to force his way past UANRERORO. He shoved and head-butted UANRERORO but the police offlcer, who knew his life was on the line, would not budge.... UANRERORO reached for his gun, stepped hard on ANINI'S right toes and shot at his left ankle. The Bendel king of the underworld staggered forward.. Assisted by some of his men who had moved into the room, UANRERORO grabbed him and placed him in a sitting position. And then, ANINI was given a bitter, painful taste of his own medicine. UANRERORO pumped more bullets into the damaged ankle, almost severing it from the leg. This was done to ensure that he was completely incapacitated. The shock and concentrated impact of the bullets burying themselves in the ankle triggered an involuntary movement in ANINI'S body and he jerked forward and rolled on the floor, already red with his blood. He was asked if he was ANINI... His anguished reply was: “My brother, I won’t tell you lie, I’m ANINI,” He was then carried out, bundled into police land rover and driven to the state police command headquarters, off Sapele Road, where Osayande and his colleagues, Edward Irabor and Donald Ugbuaja (both police commissioners), were waiting. But something happened during the me lee to catch ANINI.... All the girls who were with him escaped as the police, anxious not to let such a fine opportunity slip away, concentrated on their major prey. The euphoria engendered by the successful operation overshadowed the only major mistake UANERORO and his men committed. As soon as he arrived at the police headquarters, ANIN was thoroughly questioned about his real identity by the three Commissioners led by Osayande.... Irabor was the first to ask if he was ANINI. His poor command of English, made worse by severe pains tearing through his body, made his reply incomprehensible. Irabar resorted to Bini dialect and asked him again. ANINI said he was the one, and talked some more. He said that it was MONDAY OSUNBOR, the deputy leader of his gang arrested four weeks earlier who shot Akagbosu. Meanwhile, his blood was oozing out uncontrollably and he pleaded with the police chiefs to take him to the hospital. They later obliged him, and he was taken to the Military Base hospital on Airport road at about 3:15 pm followed by an escort of heavily armed policemen. Before he was wheeled to the theatre for an emergency operation to stop the blood flow, he was presented to pressmen who had converged at the police headquarters immediately after the news of his arrest broke out.

ANINI lay flat on his back on a stretcher, his trunk covered with a white hospital cloth soaked all through with blood. He was lifeless and his left leg with the shattered ankle dangled pitiably. His sorry condition aptly reflected the mighty fall he had taken from the hallow pedestal from which he directed his gang’s bloody assaults on the police and the public. The operation was very vital as ANINI was wanted alive to unravel his mysterious past. “I am doing everything possible to have the police get ANINI alive because I think he has something to tell the public,” Governor once said. What the Governor meant was that the merciless criminal should be made to tell all he knew about the involvement of some policemen and their officers with the underworld men. Osayande reiterated Inienger’s concern when he said: “I wanted to find him alive.” He was a bit concerned that ANINI might not survive his injuries. In the same military hospital, 22years old OSUNBOR, ANINI'S henchman, was still recuperating from the wounds he sustained from his clash with the policemen some four weeks before. Only two room separated his own from that of his former crime boss. 24hours after he was caught, ANINI had virtually become a cripple strapped permanently to a hospital bird in unfamiliar surroundings. There he spoke publicly for the first time with Osayande, the police boss. Osayande: have they given you food yet? ANINI: Yes. Osayande: when are we going to talk now, today? ANINI: okay, but I would want to get well before I talk. I will talk. Osayande: what else do you need? ANINI: minerals (soft drinks) and cigarette. Osayande: I have to find out from doctor whether you can smoke. ANINI: eh! He allowed it. I asked him here and he said I am free to smoke, but no money to buy it. Osayande: do you know me? ANINI: yes. I do but without you, I don’t think i can make a statement to anybody Osayande: Without me? Oh, you want me to be here. Okay, I will come. When do we come? MONDAY (OSUNBOR) is here, he was lying against you. You don’t know that. ANINI: Was he saying I am the one who killed the policemen? Osayande: Yes. ANINI: He is the one who killed them. Has he not confessed to you that he is the one who killed them? Osayénde: kills policemen? ANINI: Yes Osayande: Did l say you are very humane, that you don’t kill policemen? ANINI: I have not killed a policeman before, I have not killed anybody. I only threaten people. If you like to give me, if you don’t like, okay. But once it is Monday or any other person, they are ready to shoot. But for me, I don’t shoot any person. Eh pa, tell them to buy cigarette for me now? Osayande kept his promise to give him anything, and ordered Uanreroro, the man who reduced the former armed robbery king to whimpering helplessness, to go and arrange for two packets of Benson and Hedges and two bottles of soft drinks to be brought to Anini. Before then, he gave him eight sticks from his own packet.