Lawrence Anini

Anyone Ever Heard of that name?
This Man Created a Dreadful fear in EDO Peoples Heart

Here is The Story:


Lawrence Nomanyagbon Anini (c. 1960 – March 29, 1987)
was a Nigerian bandit who terrorised Benin City in the
1980s along with his sidekick Monday Osunbor. He was
captured and executed for his crimes.
Life
Anini was born in a village about 20 miles from Benin City in
present-day Edo State. Anini, dreadfully called ‘The Law’ or
‘Ovbigbo’. He migrated to Benin at an early age, learned to
drive and became a skilled taxi driver. He became known in
Benin motor parks as a man who could control the varied
competing interests among motor park touts and operators.
He later dived into the criminal business 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 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. 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 (Nathaniel Egharevba)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,
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 City, 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 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 spearheaded 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.
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 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.”
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 aid ing 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.

Lalasticlala

thanks alot op, av bn looking for this story of Anini but what about the part where they sang before execution, what was the song all about, and who among them bit the mother's ear before the execution?

May God forgive his soul.

midehi2:
thanks alot op, av bn looking for this story of Anini but what about the part where they sang before execution, what was the song all about, and who among them bit the mother's ear before the execution?

Iyamu and the rest were killed by the firing squad on a
Saturday and Valentine’s Day of 1987 but Anini and
Osunbor’s deaths were postponed to the Sanitation Day of
March, the 28th of the same year. The myth of Anini came to
a fiery end on the 27th of March, 1986. It was a Saturday and
thousands of citizens of the then-Bendel State joyfully
trooped out to watch the unceremonious exit of Anini the
Law from this earthly plane. Whether he would continue his
armed robbery in the Great Beyond was no one’s business,
they just wanted to see him dispatched from this planet as
quickly and with maximum vengeance.

Apart from Anini, Monday Osunbor (also the armourer for
the group, he was reputed to have single-handedly gunned
down six policemen), Solomon Ihebelua Osemwenkhai
(Osemenvkhore, nicknamed Akpankon, aged 22), Bernard
Obi and Friday Ukponmwan were other gang members
found guilty of conspiracy and armed robbery by the Second
Benin Armed Robbery & Firearm Tribunal on the 9th of
January. They all faced the firing squad. Anini would be cut
down in a final shower of bullets on the 27th of March, 1987,
before thousands of the same Nigerians he had terrified. At
11.05 am, as the bullets hit his already frail body, Anini
weakly muttered his final words:
Let me die reaping what I have sown.

tsamson:

Iyamu and the rest were killed by the firing squad on a Saturday and Valentine’s Day of 1987 but Anini and Osunbor’s deaths were postponed to the Sanitation Day of March, the 28th of the same year. The myth of Anini came to a fiery end on the 27th of March, 1986. It was a Saturday and thousands of citizens of the then-Bendel State joyfully trooped out to watch the unceremonious exit of Anini the Law from this earthly plane. Whether he would continue his armed robbery in the Great Beyond was no one’s business, they just wanted to see him dispatched from this planet as quickly and with maximum vengeance.
Apart from Anini, Monday Osunbor (also the armourer for the group, he was reputed to have single-handedly gunned down six policemen), Solomon Ihebelua Osemwenkhai (Osemenvkhore, nicknamed Akpankon, aged 22), Bernard Obi and Friday Ukponmwan were other gang members found guilty of conspiracy and armed robbery by the Second Benin Armed Robbery & Firearm Tribunal on the 9th of January. They all faced the firing squad. Anini would be cut down in a final shower of bullets on the 27th of March, 1987, before thousands of the same Nigerians he had terrified. At 11.05 am, as the bullets hit his already frail body, Anini weakly muttered his final words: Let me die reaping what I have sown.

hmmmm...interesting

midehi2:
thanks alot op, av bn looking for this story of Anini but what about the part where they sang before execution, what was the song all about, and who among them bit the mother's ear before the execution?

We are now in 21st century where google has always been our frnd.