them were already dead. It did not take long, he was known not only within Benin but all over Nigeria. Newspapers and media outlets all went into frenzy with editorials and major features discussing nothing but Anini and whether he would ever meet his nemesis.
Anini never hid his disdain for the police and when he was eventually nabbed, he confessed ‘Dem kill my father and brother at Ibadan, and my friend Kingsley Eweka.’ But like a man possessed by the very evil of the Devil himself, Anini was also believed to carry out another car snatching near the Federal Electoral Commission (FEDECO)office in Benin (another Peugeot 504 car) the next day after AIG of police Omeben’s driver had been abducted (see below),
in the first week of September. Omeben was in Benin to work on the Anini’s case.
Anini was suspected to have used a Passat TS vehicle for this particular operation (of course, the Passat too was believed to have been stolen). But that was not all. 48 hours after the Passat incident, Anini stormed his own local government area (Orhionmwon) and by the time the hapless people knew what had hit them, Anini and his Death squad had pumped bullets into two police officers.
A string of three different armed robbery incidents followed up and all fingers pointed at Lawrence (fondly called The Law). In one of Anini’s operations, a Mercedes Benz 200 (registered BD 1 HA) of the Ogbogbovmen II, the Ovie (King) of Ughelli was stolen in Benin. Eventually, the well regalia dressed monarch in his car before he was swooped upon by Anini’s gang and he was dragged out of the car. They ensured that they meted out some measure of disgrace upon the helpless traditional ruler before they made away with his glittering Mercedes. As the King took a hired taxi back to his palace, he was wondering if it was one very bad dream he had. Yes, it was a nightmare and it was called Anini.
A chartered accountant named Mrs. Remi Shobanjo who was also the President of the Ugbowo Lioness Club, was murdered while a former worker and Staff Writer with the Nigerian Observer, Mr. Frank Unoarumi, was also killed and they made away with his Peugeot 505 car. When Anini and his gang reached the office of the Shobanjo’s, they banged the door with all the fury left in Hell and then started firing at the door. They arrived at the Adesogbe Street office around 7.40 in the evening. The terrified couple inside the room did not know what to do and decided to be silent and not open the door. Then they continued firing at the door until it gave way. A bullet sped in and lodged itself near the poor woman’s heart. Before she knew what hit her, Mrs. Shobanjo was dead. She died on the spot. Then they entered, stole Two Hundred Naira (N200), the couple’s Peugeot 504 car (later found in Aghalokpe, Delta State) which they drove off with, after making away with some documents too.
Eventually, between 5th and 9th September, 1986, Anini and his gang made it clear that they were not joking. They attacked two police stations and posts at Abudu (the seat of his own Local Government Area) where he killed a police sergeant and father of seven named Daniel Omedew; took his pistol gun and went away with other weapons in the station. Then he and his devilish train moved to Ugo town where Corporal Lucky Ogieva was not lucky at all, falling to their bullets. By the time they left, two officers of the Nigerian Police had been killed in cold blood and many more escaped with varying degrees of injuries.
As at the end of September 1986, Anini seemed untouchable and the entity called Nigeria was already saturated with the chilling news of a dreaded robber from Benin. That month, Anini, wearing the uniform of a police superintendent launched another assault on a petrol station situated along Wire Road in Benin City. He collected all the proceeds of their sales for the day, an undisclosed amount of money and chose to shoot the station manager in the thigh. In a macabre fashion, he sprayed part of the money along the road as he made his escape.
This act of his is why some termed him the ‘Robin Hood of Africa’. As you might have guessed, Anini’s string of crime successes further emboldened him and spurred him to take even greater challenges. On Independence Day (1st October, 1986), he fired another salvo of surprise at Nigerians when he waylaid a man, Mr. Casmir Akagbosu, in Benin around 9 pm and shot the cartilage of his nose, which almost fell off. A reflex turning of his head saved Akagbosu’s life. His head was just centimetres away from the speeding bullets. That night was real evening of terror as Anini’s superior weaponry blasted off with brutal efficiency, shattering the calm peace of a Benin populace preparing to sleep.
Coincidentally, Akagbosu was no ordinary citizen, he was actually the State’s Commissioner of Police and he had just been attacked in his new Peugeot 504 car right at a spot just about 100 metres from a police roadblock. With a shattered nose, he managed to survive the attack with other injuries and it must be noted that earlier that day, Anini’s men had gone round town that same day, even killing a policeman in the process. It was a pack of sheer terror, violence, and destruction and was believed that at a point, he must have assured himself that he would never be caught, as he felt was on top of the world, with the globe at his sinewy feet.
The Commissioner of Police also survived a second attack. He was seated in a station wagon car flanked by two officers, his aides: one Sergeant Ojo and Corporal Ogbe Zechariah. All of a sudden, they were under a volley of fierce bullets coming from every cardinal direction; it was Anini and his boys again. Luck shone for Akagbosu but unluckily for his assistants, his two aides received all the hits on their limbs and thighs. The driver, Constable Paulinus Oweh was not that lucky. He was hit in the head and his limp body collapsed on the seat, with blood gushing out of the point of impact. An unidentified MOPOL (mobile policeman) seating in front with the driver however escaped untouched.
The sudden attack left the Commissioner and his boys completely flabbergasted and could not mount any reasonable response on time. At that point, the notorious Anini who attacked a Police Commissioner spread farther beyond expected boundaries.
The policemen sort of became demoralized as well as the entire society and hypertensive at the mere mention of the Orogho crime lord. Not quite long after that, Anini was on rampage again. He was off to the Ring Road, one of his favourite spots for attacks. Driving the blue Santana car which he had stolen earlier (to tease the police, he took the car after stealing it to a car wash where he calmly stayed for about an hour while the car was being cleaned), he turned at the Iwehen Street junction and he was not too far from the petrol station where he had struck less than a month back. At a twinkle of an eye, he caught a glimpse of a lonely police constable walking on the street (what a pity). He drove the car to a halt, withdrew his submachine gun and with the madness of a crazed Hitler, he released a torrent of bullets on the poor policeman.
(To be continued)
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