2. Dr Oyenusi
On the 8th of September, 1971, ‘Doctor’ Ishola Oyenusi, a notorious Nigerian robber was executed, his is name forever etched in the history of Nigeria as one of the most violent armed robbers, a criminal who unleashed boundless terror on many Nigerians.
By the early 1970s, just after the end of a bloody civil war, cold-hearted robber Ishola Oyenusi who called himself Dr Oyenusi, terrorized all of Lagos, Nigeria’s largest commercial centre.
Oyenusi was no ordinary bandit, he was wicked and had all the self-confidence in the world to go with it. His 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.”
This robber 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 strike.
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.
After shooting the movie, Ugbomah 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.
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