‘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 (read all about him here>>>http://
www.abiyamo.com/murtala-muhammed-
nigerias-most-popular-leader/
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:
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 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.
-ABIYAMO