Opinion
LAWRENCE ANINI: A brutal armed robber in the 80s, story so far…
By Albert Jackson
About 5 decades ago, the notorious bandit who terrorised Benin City and old Bendel State the 80s , Lawrence Nomanyagbon Anini A.K.A. “Ovbigbo” or “the Law” and some members of his gang were executed by firing squad after being convicted by the defunct Bendel Armed Robbery and Firearms Tribunal presided over by Justice James Omo-Agege
Anini was born in a village about 20 miles from Benin City in present-day Edo State. He migrated to Benin at an early age, learned to drive and became a skilled taxi driver. Anini 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, Smallie ,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.
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, many persons were killed. On September 6, same year, the Anini gang snatched a Peugeot 504 car from Albert Otoe, the driver of the famous super cop 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 later, 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 Akagbosu was ambushed by the gang in Benin riddled his convoy 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
“The Law”, as he was nicknamed, during an operation that went bad reportedly had to escape from the police by driving in reverse for a greater part of the distance from Agbor (Delta State) to Benin City (Edo State).
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,at Boulous Enterprises 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 , the Nation’s then highest ruling body in October 1986, General Babangida turned to the Inspector- General of Police, Etim Inyang, and asked, ‘My friend, where is Anini?’ Apperently embarrassed, IGP Iyang could to only tell his Commander in Chief that “We are still looking for him sir”. IGP Iyang was soon tender his notice of retirement from the force.
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, and ‘Lawrence Anini: A Robin Hood in Bendel’. The Guardian New papers asked, emphatically, in one of its reports: ‘Will they ever find Anini, “The Law”?’.
An African Proverb says “everyday for the thief ,one day for the owner, Anini’s reign of terror was eventually brought to an end with his arreste by a police officer , Superintendent of Police, Kayode Uanreroro on December 3, 1986, 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. It was believed that his girl friend had a hand in his arrest. Many are of the opinion that the girlfriend collaborated with the police and took Anini’s charms away before the police arrived. 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 so lilly livered and started singing like a sparrow, 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. Due to the amputation of his leg, Anini was confined to a wheelchair throughout his trial.
Anini particularly revealed that Chief Supretendent of Police 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. Iyamu, on his part, denied ever knowing and collaborating with Anini. But Anini stood his ground .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.” The execution of Anini and the remaining members of his gang took place on the last Saturday of March ,1987. Osunbor and CSP Iyamu had been executed few weeks earlier.
Albert Jackson Cares
Dear All,
By Paul EJIME
The Sahel region, including a large part of the ECOWAS space, bears the unenviable badge of the “epicentre of global terrorism.”
The attendant insecurity is compounded by poor and failed governance systems, resource mismanagement, the effects of climate change and geopolitical shifts, among the uncertainties challenging the world order.
Chatham House, London, the UK’s prominent policy and research think tank, also known as the Royal Institute of International Affairs, hosted the Foreign Affairs Ministers of Nigeria and Ghana to address these hydra-headed issues.
Attached for your kind attention and sharing.
PAUL EJIME IS AN AFRICAN AFFAIRS ANALYST
By Ehichioya Ezomon
It’s looks strange that former Vice President and twice presidential candidate of the struggling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, doesn’t seem to realise what’s galvanising governors and other political chieftains and their supporters to switch camps from the opposition parties to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
At every turn in the lead-up to the 2027 General Election, Atiku’s repeated tired and wornout claims that President Bola Tinubu’s deploying state powers to “pressure and intimidate” fiercely independent-minded governors to succumb to his alleged scheme to turn Nigeria into a one-party state, and lately to secure a “third term” after completion of his term-limit, eight-year tenure in 2031.
This assertion of a “third term” plot by Tinubu, who hasn’t got the affirmation of members for the APC ticket for the January 2027 election, confirms one quick fact: The opposition members have given up on the presidential poll for which Atiku’s rallied a Coalition of Opposition Politicians (COP) under the African Democratic Congress (ADC) to “remove” Tinubu from power in 2027.
Atiku’s obvious “bitterness” towards ‘Bola Tinubu’ (he can’t address him as “President”) and unchecked ambition to be President of Nigeria may’ve pushed him to surrender to emotions, and now sees things only in the abstract and negative, as he views the defection to the APC of his home Adamawa State Governor Ahmadu Fintiri – his protégé in the PDP that himself dumped in 2025 for the ADC!
Several factors – certainly not the polemics offered by the opposition – determine the governors’ movements: The intractable crises in the PDP; the need to align their states with the APC-led Federal Government; and to help re-elect Tinubu, whose economic reforms they attest to have positive impact on the revenues of subnational governments.
Across party lines, governors with no inhibition to truth, have publicly admitted that the Tinubu economic reforms have increased their allocations three-fold, and given them a wide berth to allocate resources. While Anambra State Governor and former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Prof. Chukwuma Soludo of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) has endorsed the Tinubu reforms; both APC Governors Abdullahi Sule of Nasarawa State and Monday Okpebholo of Edo State have credited their states’ development strides to the acruals from the president’s reforms.
In the past one year, the PDP’s lost to the APC Governors Umo Eno (Akwa Ibom), Sheriff Oborevwori (Delta), Peter Mbah (Enugu), Agbu Kefas (Taraba), Douye Diri (Bayelsa), Siminalayi Fubara (Rivers), and Caleb Mutfwang (Plateau). Like these counterparts, Fintiri, in a broadcast on Friday, February 27, 2026, at the Government House in Yola, Adamawa’s capital city, stated that his decision to leave the PDP wasn’t driven by personal ambition or convenience, but guided by one overriding consideration: “the long-term stability, development and prosperity of Adamawa State.”
According to Fintiri: “We (his government) have always been guided by the triple principles of consultation, legality and impact. As democrats, we consult with the people. As citizens we interrogate how every decision we make aligns with extant laws; and as leaders, we weigh the impact of every decision on the state and our people.
“Recent events in the polity demands that we take decisive and strategic decisions. There are seasons for political exigencies just like there are seasons for political expedience. We have come this far and built so much with the people that we are ready to move further to align our polity to national politics.
“After wide consultations with a large spectrum of our people, we have resolved to politically align Adamawa State with the All ProgressivesCongress (APC). This alignment would enable Adamawa State to effectively support and leverage the Renewed Hope Agenda of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu GCFR, which aims to transform the nation in critical sectors including social welfare, infrastructure, housing and inclusive economic development.”
Urging Adamawa citizens, as his administration’s most cherished partners, to trust that the decision to join the APC “is in our best interest,” Fintiri said that, “wherever we go from here, we are going as a collective, with the required political strength and the numbers that confer value.”
“We have structures everywhere. We are moving into the APC with all the 226 wards, 21 Local Government areas, all elected and appointed members and indeed our energy and our political machinery to confer benefit to our state, the nation and our people,” he said, adding, “I therefore call on all our supporters to fit in, register massively in the APC and gear up for a future that is assured.”
Can Nigerians imagine a sitting Governor of Lagos State – no matter the grievances he carries – decamping to the political party that vows to remove President Tinubu from power? Governor Fintiri hasn’t only joined the APC, but is also determined to stop Atiku from achieving his life-long ambition to be President in 2027 – perhaps his last chance to vie for the office, as he turns 80 plus on Election Day in January 2027.
Rather than engage in a sober assessment of his political journey that began in early 1990s when he first aspired to be President under the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Atiku’s digging around the main issue: That he’s lost his political mojo ahead of the 2027 contest. Serving under President Olusegun Obasanjo as vice president (1999-2007), Atiku became so powerful that he’d the PDP governors under his belt, and on that pedestal almost upstaged Obasanjo’s re-election bid in 2003.
Were Atiku still with such political gravitas that he wielded from pre-1998-1999 transition from military to civilian rule to the early 2000s, he wouldn’t react to Fintiri’s defection by appealing to “patriotism” he thinks resides only in Nigerians who’ll vote against Tinubu and the APC in 2027.
Atiku’s media office statement on February 28, 2026, as reported by The Nation, partly reads: “Former Vice President of Nigeria and chieftain of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Atiku Abubakar, has declared that the 2027 election will be a straight fight between Bola Tinubu and the APC on one side, and the Nigerian people on the other.
“Atiku warned that the wave of defections by opposition governors is not a sign of APC strength, but evidence of pressure and intimidation. He accused the Tinubu administration of weaponizing state institutions to bully political opponents in a desperate bid to turn Nigeria into a one-party state.
“This government fears accountability. It fears credible elections. It fears the people. No amount of coercion can erase the daily hardship Nigerians face – rising hunger, crushing poverty, worsening insecurity, and mass unemployment caused by failed economic policies.
“Governors may defect for personal survival. Nigerians are defecting in their millions because they want survival. What will the APC campaign on in 2027 – hunger? hardship? hopelessness? Do not trade your future. Do not mortgage your children’s tomorrow. In 2027, the people will have their say – and their will shall prevail.”
Polity watchers may want to ask Atiku and his colleagues the kind of alternatives they’re offering to arrest the defections by governors and Nigerians to the APC? None! Hence their expectations of replacing the incumbent with a vacuous opposition leadership won’t materialise!
They remain in denial that Nigerians can discern what’s happening around them and in the polity, and able to decide between the Tinubu tough but promising economic reforms, and the opposition’s “no-show” alternative solutions other than a focus on how to “remove Tinubu from power in 2027.”
Ask them what happens the day after if they’re given power? First, they look blank, and then insist, “Let’s get the power first, and we’ll decide on what to do thereafter.” That’s the textbook definition of power for the sake of the opposition figures, and not the interests of Nigerians they mouth to represent and fight for!
The deliberate misconception about “patriotism” and “us versus them” mentality will be Atiku and the opposition’s undoing in the 2027 election – as exhibited by “Nigerians” during the February 21, 2026, area council poll in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, which became a referendum on the opposition rather than on the Tinubu APC government.
Atiku and the mega-rich politicians driving the ADC had campaigned vigorously for the FCT poll, boasting that “Nigerians” would vote against the APC as a test-run for the 2027 election.
But the “Nigerians” they tried to weaponize against Tinubu and his administration rejected the ADC and voted the APC overwhelmingly. So, 2027 isn’t looking good for Atiku and his colleagues. That’s the reality they should internalise till Poll Day!
Mr Ezomon, Journalist and Media Consultant, writes from Lagos, Nigeria. Can be reached on X, Threads, Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp @EhichioyaEzomon. Tel: 08033078357
By Pelumi Olajengbesi, Esq.
Wealth creation is one thing; wealth preservation is another. Many individuals work tirelessly to accumulate assets through diligence, entrepreneurship, or opportunity but protecting that wealth requires foresight, structure, and professional safeguards.
As a legal practitioner, I’ve seen fortunes built over decades vanish in a single careless moment. One of the most common risks is the storage of cash or sensitive property documents at home—a practice that exposes owners to legal, financial, and security threats.
Who Should Avoid Keeping Assets at Home
Certain categories of individuals face heightened risks:
Politically Exposed Persons (PEPs): Current or former public office holders.
Sanctioned or Previously Convicted Persons: Individuals or entities under regulatory scrutiny.
High-Risk Industry Professionals: Those in extractive industries, government contracting, cross-border trade, or high-cash businesses.
Individuals with Media Exposure: Publicly associated with financial misconduct or allegations.
Executors, Trustees, and Custodians: People managing family estates or inheritance documents.
Public Figures and Influencers: Celebrities or leaders whose visibility attracts security risks.
Faith and NGO Leaders: Those managing donations, tithes, or international grants.
Real Estate Developers: Frequent buyers, sellers, or holders of property documents.
The Risks of Storing Cash and Documents at Home
Keeping assets at home opens individuals to a long list of potential dangers:
Regulatory investigations, law enforcement raids, and search warrants
Asset freezing, forfeiture orders, or tax audits
Fraud, forgery, blackmail, or extortion
Armed robbery, kidnapping, or other personal security threats
Loss due to fire, natural disasters, or accidental disposal
Family, matrimonial, probate, or inheritance disputes
These threats are not hypothetical. In a compliance-driven world, storing valuable documents or large sums of cash at home is no longer a symbol of power, it is a vulnerability.
A Professional Approach to Wealth Security
High-net-worth individuals and institutions often rely on professional custody arrangements, using trusted legal advisers, banks, or regulated custodial institutions. Such structures ensure assets are properly secured, accessible when needed, and legally protected.
In short, preserving wealth is about more than accumulation; it’s about structured protection. For anyone with valuable property, documents, or substantial cash holdings, professional custody isn’t just prudent. It’s essential.
Pelumi Olajengbesi, Esq.
Senior Partner & Group Lead
Family, Succession, and Wealth Management (FSW)
Law Corridor