This is the true life story of one of Nigeria's most notorious armed robbers who was captured and executed by a firing squad.
‘Doctor’ Ishola Oyenusi was a notorious armed robber who brought fear to the heart of many Nigerians
‘Doctor’ Ishola Oyenusi is a name etched in the history of Nigeria
as one of the most violent armed robbers, a criminal who unleashed
boundless terror on many Nigerians. But who was he and what did he do
that his name was associated with so much notoriety?
The Nigerian Civil War had just ended in 1970 but by the early
1970s, a stone-hearted armed robber, Ishola Oyenusi (he called himself
Dr. Oyenusi even if he never finished the secondary school), was
terrorising all of Lagos, Nigeria’s largest commercial centre. Before
one tale of his daring exploits died down, another one had sprung up.
Oyenusi was no ordinary pilferer, this snitcher was downright wicked and
had all the self-confidence in the world to go with it. And you know
something? He was quite romantic and chivalrous. There was a story of
how he snatched his first car on Herbert Macaulay Road in Yaba, Lagos.
Why? His girlfriend was broke. He eventually sold the car for N400 but
the sad part was that in the process of stealing the car, the poor owner
was shot dead. He actually snatched the first car he saw on the road.
Such was the ferocious nature of his audacity.
Oyenusi’s arrogance was also legendary. In 1970, he was arrested
and handcuffed by a police officer. As the policeman was ordering him
around, Oyenusi blasted him and thundered:
‘People like you don’t talk to me like that when I am armed. I gun them down.’
Hmmm, but that was not all. Oyenusi was so feared that when the
famed movie director, Chief Eddie Ugbomah made a film titled The Rise
and Fall of Dr. Oyenusi in 1977, there was no one bold enough to come
forward to act the role of the armed robber because they feared his
members would show them shege. Ugbomah had no other option but to act
the role himself with the feature film depicting the senseless violence
of armed robberies and the absolutely atrocious manner by which lives of
innocent Nigerians were snuffed out. But there was one interesting
thing that happened: a medical doctor by the name of Dr. Oyenusi was so
mad at the film producer that he headed for the court trying to stop the
shooting of the movie.
Actually, Ugbomah was threatened. He received a letter from thieves
who invaded and looted his provision store,carting away all they could.
In the letter, they promised to return his goods if he would only stop
shooting the film in which he exposed the support received by the armed
robbers from their ‘godfathers’ and even high-ranking officers in the
Nigerian Armed Forces. The stubborn Ugbomah called their bluff and went
ahead with the 16mm-flick (kindly send us a clip of this film if you
have one). Ugbomah would later produce many other films such as Death of
a Black President (1983), Esan (Nemesis), The Mask and Vengeance of the
Cult in 1985. Death of a Black President was about the assassination of
General Murtala Muhammed.
In the 1970s, Oyenusi was no doubt the uncrowned emperor of
Nigerian robbers and he is described as the ‘first celebrated armed
robber in Nigeria’. He is regarded by some as the pioneer of
conventional armed robbery in Nigeria. When Oyenusi reigned at the
height of his regal confidence, he declared:
‘The bullet has no power.‘
As at that time, armed robbers were condemned to death and
thousands joyfully came out to ‘enjoy’ the grisly public executions
before the firing squad on the pristine beaches of Lagos. Although
Nigeria no longer has very ‘famous’ bandits and thieves like Anini (at
the age of 26, Lawrence Nomayagbon Anini was the most notorious robber
in Nigeria), Babatunde Folorunsho, Monday Osunbor, Shina Rambo, Buraimoh
Jimoh, Oyenusi, ‘Mighty Joe’, ‘Captain Blood’ and George Iyamu (a
former Deputy Superintendent of Police who was Anini’s
collaborator),armed robbery is nonetheless a major problem in the
nation.
THE END
In March 1971, Oyenusi was nabbed by the Nigerian Police after he
organized a robbery in which $28,000 (value as at that time) was stolen.
They killed a police constable in the process. Although the first
public execution of robbers had taken place in April 1971, that of
Oyenusi and his criminal allies was a special case and the Lagos
government took time to prepare the grounds at the Bar Beach.
By 8.am, officials were already at the execution arena to check the
whole place just to ensure that everything went on ‘well’. A combined
team of police officers and soldiers struggled to contain the surging
crowd of thousands of excited spectators. At about 9.15 am, a team of
Lagos City Council workers came to the execution arena with empty mock
coffins which they calmly laid behind the execution stand. Obviously,
they were there to make fun of a man who had sent so much terror into
their hearts. About half an hour later, eight robbers were led to the
execution stand.
HIS EXECUTION DAY
On the day of Oyenusi’s execution, over 30,000 Nigerians trooped to
the famous Bar Beach (armed robberies were quite rare then and when it
happened, it was the gist of the town for months so the considerably
high level of the people’s curiosity can be appreciated). While some in
the crowd jeered and booed Oyenusi and his Gang of Seven, some of his
friends and family members present could not hold back their tears. But
for most of the witnesses, it was good riddance to bad nonsense. As for
Oyenusi, he was smiling, smiling to the last but the agony on his face
too was unmistakable. But just few minutes before his body was riddled
with hot-leaded bullets from stern-faced soldiers of the Nigerian Army,
he finally confessed saying:
‘I am dying for the offence I have committed.‘
Two army trucks and a black van conveyed them to the firing spot.
Oyenusi was in the black van. In seconds, three soldiers flew out of the
army trucks and proceeded to the black van inside which was Nigeria’s
most dreaded armed robber. The soldiers came to a screeching halt and
stood at attention by the van. All of a sudden, one of them let out a
shrill command! The door was flung open and slowly, Oyenusi appeared
from within the darkness of the Black Maria. As if the heavens were in
concert, dark clouds had formed over the Bar Beach. He was cloaked in a
dark long-sleeved shirt and his hands were tied behind his back. He
spotted a pair of dark loafers and his trousers were wrinkled. Sweating
profusely, he kept throwing fast glances around as if he was looking for
someone as he surveyed the crowd who had thronged the beach to simply
see him die.
As the soldiers grabbed and tied him to the pole, he was still
scanning through the crowd. One of the giggling spectators in the crowd
whispered to the next ‘Who is he looking for?‘. Smartly, seven soldiers
formed a lethal line in front of Oyenusi. A soldier let out a fierce
command to the sharpshooters. All of them took aim at Oyenusi. The next
voice reverberated all over Nigeria:
‘Fire!’
Like an electrocuted being, his body shook vigorously as he slumped and went limp around the pole that held his remains.
For a man who said bullets had no power to penetrate his skin, he
slumped in seconds, surrendering to the high-velocity missiles directed
at his mortal vessel. His fragile human body could not withstand the
pitiless hail of gunfire, amplified by the metallic drums behind them.
Some of the robbers refused the final blessings from the priest while
some of them look clearly frightened as the soldiers aimed at them. The
basic human instinct of survival betrayed their emotions. Some others
shouted their protests and defiance to the last as live cameras of the
journalists sent the gory details to those at home watching the
spectacle on their black-white television sets.
However, Oyenusi, who confessed that he joined the armed robbery
business in 1959, was not to die alone. He was to end his journey on
earth with six of his other gang members whom he had led to their last
robbery at the WAHUM factory at Ikeja, Lagos on the 27th March, 1971.
These included:
-Joel Amamieye
-Ambrose Nwokobia
-Stephen Ndubuokwu
-Philip Ogbolumain
-Joseph Osamedike
-Ademola Adegbitan
Amamlaye was a former Personnel Manager at WAHUM where they robbed
while Nwokobia was the gateman at the same place. During the robbery,
they killed a police constable named Mr. Nwi. An eighth man, Isaac
Ekwunife was also executed for robbing a man of a car in Surulere, Lagos
in early 1971.
By the time the guns stopped vomitting the bullets, Oyenusi and his
cohorts were dead bringing to a total of 70 armed robbers executed
after the Nigerian Civil War ended in 1970. As hinted earlier, death by
firing squad was the order of the day as at that time. Following
Oyenusi’s execution, the Information Officer stationed at the Nigerian
Embassy in Washington DC, Femi Davis was interviewed on the matter. He
said:
It is the law to shoot persons convicted of armed robbery, that is
the robbery with armed violence. The law was passed last year by the
Federal Government because we wanted to make it tough for criminals who
began preying upon villages and people on the highway looking for easy
money.
Oyenusi, the man also known as ‘Dr. Rob-and-Kill’ and his gang met
their brutal end at the hands of a 14-man firing squad on the serene
Victoria Island of Lagos. According to one of his defence lawyers who
visited him while in jail, Oyenusi was imprisoned for the first time
when he was 21. He then escaped and was imprisoned again. He escaped
AGAIN and was imprisoned AGAIN. He escaped about eight times and then he
decided to become an armed robber and that gave him the cloak of
invincibility for some time. According to Ebenezer Babatope, former
Minister of Transport in his book, The Struggle for Power in Nigeria,
Oyenusi told journalists minutes before his death that he would never
have become an armed robber if his parents were rich enough to sustain
him in the secondary school. He also confessed to taking part in ten
major robberies and murders over a period of six years (Africa Research
Bulletin, Blackwell, 1971).
Nigerians now travel with fear (some families have even banned
night travels) and move with trepidation while the security forces are
either too demoralized, outnumbered (which serious nation of 170 million
on earth will be policed by 370,000 police officers, does that make any
‘zenze’? Russia with about 143 million people has almost one million
police officers equipped with armed helicopters, A-91 rifles, Makarov
and Grach pistols, armoured vehicles, police buses, carbines, vans,
all-terrain vehicles (where are those ALGON police jeeps Obasanjo
bought?)) or under-armed to launch any reasonable counterattack or
simply join ranks with the lawbreakers. Hopefully, a time will come when
Nigeria will be rid of this vermin called armed robbery (and yeah, pen
robbery too).
Trivia: The military government of General Yakubu Gowon approved
the public executions of armed robbers. During his regime, the trend of
armed robbery was becoming disturbing, a decree was passed, robbers
faced the Armed Robbery Tribunal and were promptly shot.
Culled from abiyamo.com
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