Nigerian Economy Under Buhari: Preparing A Safe Ground For Criminals

It was Mustapha Ogunsakin who once asked the soul-searching question in one of his write-ups: "Do You Know Lawrence Nomanyagbon Anini, Nigeria’s Most Notorious Dare Devil Armed Robber In The 80s?" Little did we know then that Mustapha was reminding us of a time like this. Casting our minds back, we will recall that that the leadership of Gen. Muhammadu Buhari back then brought untold hardship on the generality of Nigerians. His economic policies then was very harsh that people started dying of hunger. He began by changing the Nigerian currency, urged everyone to deposit their money in the banks for exchange with the new. We all did, and the banks were instructed to withold the money. At the time of payment, there were long queues in the banks. If you are lucky to get to the point of pay, they will divide your money and give you a little sum which is not worth the waiting. At a time, people started to fall down from the queues, fainting and dying. The hardship was enormous. Most people devised some ways of beating the hardship. Some took to stealing while others took other wrong ways. This is when Lawrence Anini was made and Babangida's coup that overthrew Buhari was welcomed from all the regions of nigeria. Here is a story of Anini: Lawrence Nomanyag­bon Anini, Nigeria’s most notorious armed robber, was born sometime in 1960. He terrorised the old Bendel State, especially its capital, Benin City in the 1980s. By 1986, his robbery exploits had reached such a terrible level that it became a national issue. He operated along with his lieutenant, Monday Osunbor, and others. However, one striking feature in the Anini reign of terror was police complicity. It was soon discovered that the Anini gang had insiders within the Police hierarchy George Iyamu, a Deputy Superintendent of Police, was their arrowhead.Anini, dreadfully called ‘The Law’ or ‘Ovbigbo’, was born in a village about 20 miles from Be­nin City. He migrated to Benin at an early age, learned to drive and became a skilled taxi driver within a few years. He became known in Benin motor parks as a man who could control the varied competing interests among motor park touts and operators. He later took to criminal acts in the city and soon became a driver and transporter for gangs, criminal godfathers and thieves. Soon after, he decided to create his own gang. They started out as car hijackers, bus robbers and bank thieves. Gradually, he eextended his criminal acts to other towns and cities far north and east of Benin.The complicity of the police is believed to have enhanced Anini’s reign of terror in 1986. Early that year, two members of his gang were prosecuted over an earlier under-the-table ‘agree­ment’ with the Police to destroy evidence against the gang members. The incident, and Anini’s view of Police betrayal, is believed to have spurred retaliatory actions by Anini. In August, 1986, a bank robbery linked to Anini was reported in which a police officer and others were killed. That same month, two officers on duty were shot at a barricade while trying to stop Anini’s car. During a span of three months, he was known to have killed nine police officers.In an operation in August of 1986, the Anini team struck at First Bank, Sabongida-Ora, where they carted away N2, 000. But although the amount sto­len was seen as chicken feed, they left the scene with a trail of blood. Many persons were killed. On September 6, same year, the Anini gang snatched a Peu­geot 504 car from Albert Otoe, the driver of an Assistant Inspector General of Police, Christopher Omeben. In snatching the car, they killed the driver and went to hide his corpse somewhere. It was not until three months later that the skeleton of the driver was spotted 16 kilometers away from Benin, along the Benin-Ag­bor highway. A day after this at­tack, Anini, operating in a Passat car believed to have been stolen, also effected the snatching of another Peugeot 504 car near the former FEDECO office, in Benin. Two days after,