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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.

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.