Full Story of The Most Dreaded Armed Robber, Lawrence Anini

* Life and Death of Nigeria’s Most Notorious Armed
Robber

Read the story of Nigeria’s most notorious armed robber
in the 80s who was dreaded by the police as he was said
to have killed and robbed massively at will, thereby
becoming a national threat.


Lawrence Nomanyagbon Anini, was one of Nigeria’s
most notorious armed robbers who held sway in the old
Bendel State (Now Edo and Delta States).
His reign in the 80s was so bloody that he was even
discussed at the State Security Council meeting.
Anini was executed on March 29, 1987, after his
conviction by a Benin High Court for armed robbery.
Anini was born in 1960 in a village about 20 miles from
Benin City, present day Edo State. 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 delved 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
include, Monday Osunbor, Ofege, and others, and 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 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 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, they left the scene with a trail of blood.
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,
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 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 strew wads of naira notes on the
ground for free pick by market men and women at a
village near Benin.
Anini thus spear-headed 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.

My friend, where is Anini?

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, 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.”
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. 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.
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 aiding and abetting of
criminals in Bendel State and the entire country.
Anini particularly revealed that George 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.

Trial and execution: Due to 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.