dr dams: Derico, Clifford Orji, Rev. King!!

coogar: i love urban legends - oyenusi was a legend. each time i have culled an elder to tell me about him, they all had spine-chilling things to say about him as the most notorious armed robber in the history of nigeria.

The Top 5
• dr. oyenusi
• lawrence anini
• derico
• shina rambo
• kayode williams.

nollywood producers should gather intelligence & do movies on the stories of these urban legends & share the proceeds with their known victims. that's how it's done in the developed world.

coogar:

legend = the story being told about famous or infamous people generally.
they don't have to contribute positively to be legends. a serial killer
is a legend so is a freedom fighter like mandela. you can google it
& confirm. whether famous or notorious - as long as people talk
about it en masse - a legend is born.

the dictionary defines legend as an unverified story handed down from
earlier times, especially one popularly believed to be historical or
a person whose fame or notoriety makes him a source of exaggerated or
romanticized tales or exploits.

yes! Just like Machete!

so whether you like it or not, derico, anini, oyenusi & shina rambo
are all legends.

Bossforeva: Am nt yet done

mikeapollo: This is one of the things we invented and took to other countries.....e.g Ghana. The first set of armed robbers arreseted in Ghana were Nigerians.

Nogen:

Are you okay? Se Kosi?

dr dams: Oponu sowe nu! Ewo lo kan e ? Shey mo ba e wi?

Nogen:

Anupama aturu efelefu ezi nwa ofe mnanu mnanu . Eze ule anu Ohia

shadrach77:


nope, there was one more you didn't add the legendary ibadan rober Mufu Oloosa Oko. So popular a film was released about him recently. And the write up by the op did not do justice to Oyenusi. He was heavily fortified via charms and so many legendary stories abound about his exploits

Bossforeva: ‘Doctor’ Ishola Oyenusi is a name etched in the history of Nigeria as one of the most violent armed robbers, a criminal who unleashed boundless terror on many Nigerians. But who was he and what did he do that his name was associated with so much notoriety?
The Nigerian Civil War had just ended in 1970 but by the early 1970s, a stone-hearted armed robber, Ishola Oyenusi (he called himself Dr. Oyenusi even if he never finished the secondary school), was terrorising all of Lagos, Nigeria’s largest commercial centre. Before one tale of his daring exploits died down, another one had sprung up. Oyenusi was no ordinary pilferer, this snitcher was downright wicked and had all the self-confidence in the world to go with it. And you know something? He was quite romantic and chivalrous. There was a story of how he snatched his first car on Herbert Macaulay Road in Yaba, Lagos. Why? His girlfriend was broke. He eventually sold the car for N400 but the sad part was that in the process of stealing the car, the poor owner was shot dead. He actually snatched the first car he saw on the road. Such was the ferocious nature of his audacity.
Oyenusi’s arrogance was also legendary. In 1970, he was arrested and handcuffed by a police officer. As the policeman was ordering him around, Oyenusi blasted him and thundered:
‘People like you don’t talk to me like that when I am armed. I gun them down.’
Hmmm, but that was not all. Oyenusi was so feared that when the famed movie director, Chief Eddie Ugbomah made a film titledThe Rise and Fall of Dr. Oyenusiin 1977,there was no one bold enough to come forward to act the role of the armed robber because they feared his members would show themshege.Ugbomah had no other option but to act the role himself with the feature film depicting the senseless violence of armed robberies and the absolutely atrocious manner by which lives of innocent Nigerians were snuffed out. But there was one interesting thing that happened: a medical doctor by the name of Dr. Oyenusi was so mad at the film producer that he headed for the court trying to stop the shooting of the movie.
Actually, Ugbomah was threatened. He received a letter from thieves who invaded and looted his provision store, carting away all they could. In the letter, they promised to return his goods if he would only stop shooting the film in which he exposed the support received by the armed robbers from their ‘godfathers’ and even high-ranking officers in the Nigerian Armed Forces. The stubborn Ugbomah called their bluff and went ahead with the 16mm-flick (kindly send us a clip of this film if you have one). Ugbomah would later produce many other films such asDeath of a Black President(1983),Esan (Nemesis), The MaskandVengeance of the Cultin 1985.Death of a Black Presidentwas about the assassination of General Murtala Muhammed(read all about him here>>> http://www..com /murtala-muhammed-nigerias- most-popular-leader/
In the 1970s, Oyenusi was no doubt the uncrowned emperor of Nigerian robbers and he is described as the ‘first celebrated armed robber in Nigeria’. He is regarded by some as the pioneer of conventional armed robbery in Nigeria. When Oyenusi reigned at the height of his regal confidence, he declared:
‘The bullet has no power.‘
As at that time, armed robbers were condemned to death and thousands joyfully came out to ‘enjoy’ the grisly public executions before the firing squad on the pristine beaches of Lagos. Although Nigeria no longer has very ‘famous’ bandits and thieves like Anini (at the age of 26, Lawrence Nomayagbon Anini was the most notorious robber in Nigeria), Babatunde Folorunsho, Monday Osunbor, Shina Rambo, Buraimoh Jimoh, Oyenusi, ‘Mighty Joe’, ‘Captain Blood’ and George Iyamu (a former Deputy Superintendent of Police who was Anini’s collaborator), armed robbery is nonetheless a major problem in the nation.
THE END
In March 1971, Oyenusi was nabbed by the Nigerian Police after he organized a robbery in which $28,000 (value as at that time) was stolen. They killed a police constable in the process. Although the first public execution of robbers had taken place in April 1971, that of Oyenusi and his criminal allies was a special case and the Lagos government took time to prepare the grounds at the Bar Beach.
By 8.am, officials were already at the execution arena to check the whole place just to ensure that everything went on ‘well’. A combined team of police officers and soldiers struggled to contain the surging crowd of thousands of excited spectators. At about 9.15 am, a team of Lagos City Council workers came to the execution arena with empty mock coffins which they calmly laid behind the execution stand. Obviously, they were there to make fun of a man who had sent so much terror into their hearts. About half an hour later, eight robbers were led to the execution stand…

juman: I remember JB that was executed with his gang members in ilorin in 1984/85.

psky:


Now we all know newspapers have always applied sensationalism to sell their stories, it was most likely exaggerated.
Oyenusi was human like everybody, a single shot to the chest by a good marksman would have finished him off.

Also, no one ever said Oyenusi died a coward, the op said he smiled even while tied to the stake and he had pics to prove it.

funnyx: Clips of a Yoruba movie titled Oyenusi, watch out.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxHZhgR0ynw

coogar:

that was heavy....
the production is crisp. i hope the movie is based on true events & not some fictional rubbish. i saw the oyenusi brushing bullets off his jacket.

Bossforeva: These Include
CREDITS: COLIN PANTALL
-Joel Amamieye
-Ambrose Nwokobia
-Stephen Ndubuokwu
-Philip Ogbolumain
-Joseph Osamedike
-Ademola Adegbitan
Amamlaye was a former Personnel Manager at WAHUM where they robbed while Nwokobia was the gateman at the same place. During the robbery, they killed a police constable named Mr. Nwi. An eighth man, Isaac Ekwunife was also executed for robbing a man of a car in Surulere, Lagos in early 1971.
Oyenusi is seen to the extreme right, all tied up. CREDITS: COLIN PANTALL.
By the time the guns stopped vomitting the bullets, Oyenusi and his cohorts were dead bringing to a total of 70 armed robbers executed after the Nigerian Civil War ended in 1970. As hinted earlier, death by firing squad was the order of the day as at that time. Following Oyenusi’s execution, the Information Officer stationed at the Nigerian Embassy in Washington DC, Femi Davis was interviewed on the matter. He said:
It is the law to shoot persons convicted of armed robbery, that is the robbery with armed violence. The law was passed last year by the Federal Government because we wanted to make it tough for criminals who began preying upon villages and people on the highway looking for easy money.
Oyenusi, the man also known as ‘Dr. Rob-and-Kill’ and his gang met their brutal end at the hands of a 14-man firing squad on the serene Victoria Island of Lagos. According to one of his defence lawyers who visited him while in jail, Oyenusi was imprisoned for the first time when he was 21. He then escaped and was imprisoned again. He escaped AGAIN and was imprisoned AGAIN. He escaped about eight times and then he decided to become an armed robber and that gave him the cloak of invincibility for some time. According to Ebenezer Babatope, former Minister of Transport in his book,The Struggle for Power in Nigeria,Oyenusi told journalists minutes before his death that he would never have become an armed robber if his parents were rich enough to sustain him in the secondary school. He also confessed to taking part in ten major robberies and murders over a period of six years (Africa Research Bulletin, Blackwell, 1971).
Nigerians now travel with fear (some families have even banned night travels) and move with trepidation while the security forces are either too demoralized, outnumbered (which serious nation of 170 million on earth will be policed by 370,000 police officers, does that make any ‘zenze’? Russia with about 143 million people has almost one million police officers equipped with armed helicopters, A-91 rifles, Makarov and Grach pistols, armoured vehicles, police buses, carbines, vans, all-terrain vehicles (where are those ALGON police jeeps Obasanjo bought?)) or under-armed to launch any reasonable counterattack or simply join ranks with the lawbreakers. Hopefully, a time will come when Nigeria will be rid of this vermin called armed robbery (and yeah, pen robbery too).
Trivia: The military government of General Yakubu Gowon approved the public executions of armed robbers. During his regime, the trend of armed robbery was becoming disturbing, a decree was passed, robbers faced the Armed Robbery Tribunal and were promptly shot.