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.
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 teh 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… DOCTOR-ISHOLA-OYENUSI-EXECUTION-BAR-BEACH-1971-1_Naijarchives
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.
DOCTOR-ISHOLA-OYENUSI-EXECUTION-BAR-BEACH-1971-4_Naijarchives 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:
CREDITS: COLIN PANTALL -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.
Oyenusi is seen to the extreme
right, all tied up. CREDITS: COLIN PANTALL. 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 and was imprisoned. 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 if 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
promptly shot. Thanks for your time.
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