A video of Nigeria’s most notorious armed robber, Anini, being executed in 1980 has surfaced on social media......Read The Full Article>>.....Read The Full Article>>
The story of Anini and his days of terror caused fear and panic in Edo State, Benin. Anini was born in 1960 in a village about 20 miles from Benin City.
He grew up learning how to drive at a very young age, becoming a skilled taxi driver. Anini became popular in Benin motor parks as a tout. He later ventured into criminal activities as he became the driver and transporter for gangs, criminal godfathers, and thieves.
Nigeria Stories on X narrated that Anini created his gang, which included Monday Osunbor, Ofege, and others, and they started out as car hijackers, bus robbers, and bank thieves, which extended to other towns and cities far north and east of Benin.
The actions of the police were reported to have triggered Anini’s reign of terror in 1986, after 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.
This led to Anini’s retaliation following the police betrayal. In August 1986, a fatal bank robbery linked to Anini was reported in which a police officer 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.
In an operation in August 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, they left the scene with a trail of blood. Many people were killed.
On September 6, the 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, 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 later, Anini’s 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, The Law, turned to a ‘Father Christmas’ as he sprayed wads of naira notes on the ground for free as market men and women at a village near Benin picked them.
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 then military President General Ibrahim Babangida, 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, the 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.
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’.
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 of 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 inquired. 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 headbutted the police officer, but it was an exercise in futility.
Uanreroro 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.”
Anini was transferred to a military hospital and had one of his legs amputated. When Anini’s hideout was searched, police recovered assorted charms, including the one he usually wore around his waist during “operations”.
Due to the amputation of his leg, Anini was confined to a wheelchair throughout his trial. He was sentenced to death by Justice James Omo-Agege and executed on March 29, 1987.”
Watch the video of his execution below.