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‘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…
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 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.
-ABIYAMO
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