When discussing about Criminals in Nigeria, eyebrows are always raised when ordinary Nigerians are the only focus. This list combines it all, it will be talking about both suspected Politicians declared wanted for various crimes and ordinary Nigerians that made names for themselves out of various acts of terror inside and outside the Nation.
1. Abiodun Egunjobi aka Godogodo – NOTORIOUS CRIMINAL
Abiodun Egunjobi, alias Godogodo, had only one eye but he was about the deadliest armed robber Nigeria ever had.
Godogodo terrorised Lagos and other Southwestern states for 14 years till he was apprehended in 2013. Egunjobi who hailed from Ogun state is believed to have killed more than 100 policemen and stolen millions in his criminal career. Godogodo was so careful about his life in the underworld that his family and friends only found out who he really was when he was finally arrested.
Godogodo who rose from being a slum boy to the leader of a gang that defied all reasons, struck with precision, killed without mercy and terrorised Lagos and the south west with reckless abandon.
Before his arrest on August 1, 2013, Godogodo, also known as the one-eyed assassin, gave the Lagos State Police Command so much headache for 14 years, so much so that on the day he was arrested, the command erupted in joy: at least its men would be safe from his guns.
The way Godogodo managed to evade the police is still legendary. In fact, he was at a time, on the top of the Most Wanted list of the Command with several Police Commissioners assigning the toughest of cops on his trail.
Godogodo allegedly went for operations with a bag containing 10 fully loaded AK 47 rifles with 30 rounds of ammunition each and as such, he was fully prepared in terms of weapons on his back.
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It was gathered that Godogodo used to tell his gang members that he would never be arrested alive and had vowed to go down with as many policemen as possible on the day he is unable to escape arrest.
This vow was later found to be real, as anti-robbery detectives recovered several loaded AK47s, each with 60 rounds of live ammunition, from different parts of his residence, including the kitchen, bedroom, bathroom, sitting room on the day of his arrest.
He was so good at disguising his criminal activities that even his wife and family members never knew what he was into. He had six houses in different locations including Lagos, Ogun and Ondo States, and never stayed in a particular location for more than a month.
He had over 52 fish ponds and passed for a successful businessman, respected by all. he never drank, smoked, womanised nor socialised, portraying himself as a very responsible family man, but deep down, he was as deadly as a mamba.
2. Tompolo – FRAUD SUSPECT
The Ex-Delta Militant leader, is wanted in a case of conspiracy, illegal diversion of the sum of N45.9 billion belonging to the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, NIMASA.
Since December 10th, 2015 Tompolo has been declred wanted for questioning by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and had refused to honor their invitation claiming he was in court against the anti-corruption agency.
Specifically, the EFCC wishes to question Tompolo about the illicit sale of N13 billion in land from him to the Federal Government. According to reports, the Federal Government wanted to construct the Nigerian Maritime University (NMU) and had diverted public funds through the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) to the militant.
Mr. Tompolo is reportedly hiding in the Niger Delta creeks; he rejects any insinuation that the land deal was fraudulent asking EFCC to contact former President Goodluck Jonathan for clarification.
3. Ishola Oyenusi aka Doctor – NOTORIOUS CRIMINAL
Ishola Oyenusi was one of the first notorious armed robbers in Nigeria. He is renown for his ruthlessness with many claiming the gangster even killed people for things as small as a stick of cigarette. He is believed to have gotten into armed robbery in 1959 but the long arm of the law caught up with him and he was executed in 1971.
Oyenusi started off his robbery career by snatching a car (whose owner died in the process) just because his (Oyenusi) girlfriend needed some money. It was said by some people that Oyenusi was romantic. He sold the car at the price of N400 and gave the money to his girlfriend.
Oyenusi came into limelight after the Nigerian civil war ended in 1970. He robbed banks and people in both daylight and night, and he never let any of his victims live to see another day, he killed them all! This earned him the name “Doctor rob and kill“. At the height of his horrific reign, Oyenusi bragged that “the bullet has no power“.
However, nothing lasts forever, and as the adage says, everyday belongs to the thief while a day belongs to the owner. On the 27th of March, 1971, Oyenusi was nabbed by the police during one of his robbery operations in which he and his notorious gang killed a police constable named Mr. Nwi and stole $28,000 as at then. Cloud of shame hovered above Doctor Ishola Oyenusi as he was casted before the law and found guilty then sentenced to death by firing squad.
when Oyenusi was ushered to the popular Bar Beach in Lagos where he was to be executed, over 30,000 Nigerians were happily and excitedly waiting to see the man who had terrorized them get riddled by hot bullets. It was said that some civil servants even brought a coffin to the execution ground to mock the once mighty robber kingpin who was now nothing but a scapegoat whose breath would be exhausted in any moment.
He also said “I am dying for the offense I have committed“. Oyenusi and other criminals were fastened to the stakes. The soldiers lined in front of them and aimed their ever ready guns. Some of the criminals yelled their last words of protest at the cameras. Then a loud voice let out the word “fire“! Oyenusi and other criminal’s body were sprayed with bullets. That was the bitter end of Ishola Oyenusi who lived by the bullets and died by the bullets.
4. GEN. Abdulsalami Abubakar – LOOTER
When World Bank released names of Nigerian looters, GEN. Abdulsalami Abubakar was not excluded. The Ex-President looted 1.31bn pounds, 2.33bn Swiss franc and 800M USD.
The Justice Chukwudifu Oputa Commission of inquiry probing human rights violations in the country was treated inn 2011 to amazing details of how the General Abdulsalami Abubakar regime allegedly pillaged the economy, siphoning several billions in both local and foreign currencies, including $40 million contributed by multinational companies for the late General Sani Abacha’s self-succession bid.
Former head of the Directorate of Military Intelligence (DMI), Brigadier-General Ibrahim Sabo (rtd.) alleged that the primary aim of seizing power by military men was to steal money. He said that immediate past Head of State, “General Abubakar manifested high propensity of looking for money and grumbled loudly any time he did not get his wish.”
5. Lawrence Anini aka The Law – NOTORIOUS CRIMINAL
In his time Nigeria recorded two types of armed robbers and they are Lawrence Nomanyagbon Anini and others. No armed robber has ever held the entire country on ransom as Anini. In fact, his reign was so bloody that he was even discussed at the State Security Council meeting.
Lawrence Anini was a notorious armed robber who terrorised residents of Old Bendel state (now Edo and Delta states) in the 80’s. Anini and his gang started out as car snatchers but graduated to robbing banks.
He started work as a lorry driver (some say taxi driver) after his master fired him and slowly transformed into a leader of the local motor parks, controlling and commanding touts.
Following the sudden overthrow of the politicians in the early 1980s and banning of politics in 1984 by the Buhari regime the highly-skilled driver (now of of criminal gangs and godfathers) discovered that armed robbery was far more lucrative and decided to form his own deadly gang
Anini killed many of the policemen sent to apprehend him but was finally caught in December of 1986. The Anini terrror finally came to an end thanks to the courage of Superintendent of Police, Kayode Uanreroro. On December 3, 1986, Uanreroro caught Anini at No 26, Oyemwosa Street, opposite Iguodala Primary School, Benin City, in company with six women.
Acting on a tip-off from the locals, the policeman went straight to the house where Anini was hiding and apprehended him with very little resistance. Uanreroro led a crack 10-man team to the house, knocked on the door of the room, and Anini himself, clad in underpants, opened the door. “Where is Anini?”, the police officer quickly enquired.
Due to amputation of his leg, Anini was confined to a wheelchair throughout his trial. He was sentenced to death by Justice James Omo-Agege and executed on March 29, 1987.
6. General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida – LOOTER
(Apart from Obasanjo, Babangida is the greatest evil ever to befall any country in the world)-All that Babangida, (nicknamed IBB), has to show for his over eight years in power in Nigeria, is private colossal wealth, and the edification of corruption in our body politics.
General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida was once a military president of Nigeria from 27 August 1985. It was him that overthrew Major General Muhammadu Buhari from office in a bloodless coup. He also annulled the popular June 12 election that saw the late M.K.O Abiola win. During his regime, human rights was severely abused.
The book, The Sink, by Jeffrey Robinson, an American writer, says it all about Babangida. “Of the $120 billion siphoned out of the Nigerian treasury into offshore accounts by dishonest politicians, $20 billion is allegedly traceable to IBB directly as president from 1985 to 1993.” The World Bank and other international sources of information put his total loot from the Nigerian treasury at over $35 billion.
He iwas threatening to use a fraction of his loot to return to power and a figure of N400 billion was mentioned by his cronies as his campaign chest. We ought to be worrying now about how to survive this viper’s poisoned food. We are desperately hungry but if we eat, we die immediately. If we don’t, we die slowly from hunger anyway, terrorized by the viper’s fang. We are trapped. We can’t get up to look elsewhere for food or do anything else.
7. Shina Rambo
Shina Rambo was an armed robber that operated in the Western region of Nigeria in the 90’s. Rambo is believed to always disappear whenever the police got close to catching him.
He was born in the year 1958 to a military man who was a bad egg in the service. His father was from Abeokuta in Ogun state, but his mother was a native of Sabongida–Ora in Edo state. His father had over 18 wives, as was the norm for soldiers to impregnate virtually every woman they met where they were posted to. His father used his military influence to rob innocent citizens, and always brought huge amount of money home. This used to entice little Shina. He recalls, “I remembered when I was about 7 years old, my father came home with a lot of money, foreign currencies, with blood on it, and they were using something like a woman’s scarf to wipe it, then I asked him, is this an animal’s blood, or human blood? But he wouldn’t answer me, they were just drinking, smoking, and merry making.
HOW IT ALL STARTED
”Shina was already indoctrinated into the underworld by his father at a tender age of 7 without him knowing it, as he would sit in front of his son, to dismantle and assemble all sorts of weapons and then polishing them in preparation for an operation.
This went on for so long till one day, little Shina, entered into his father’s room while he had stepped into the toilet, and saw a dismembered gun on the floor. He sat down in front of it, and bit by bit, he had assembled it effortlessly in no time at all. His father came out of the toilet, and saw his son, with a loaded gun in his hands.
ACQUISITION OF POWERS
Shina Rambo became so notorious in no time, and was hell
bent on succeeding in his career as an armed robber, that he went through any length to secure spiritual powers for fortification.
To the extent of pounding over 27 live new born babies in the mortar with a pestle, cutting off about 100 human tongues and cooking them to eat, visiting the spiritual river called river of life in Ogoja, Cross Rivers State, living in an Iroko tree for days, and sleeping in the cemetery.
He was given a spiritual wife who always followed him for any operation, she dressed like an Alhaja, people thought she was human, but she was a spirit, that was why they never saw her face. He said she was his personal driver, that she could drive from Nigeria to Cotonou, in the speed of light.
HISTORIC ROBBERY
He once robbed 40 exotic cars in one day and drove all of them in a convoy, from Lagos to Cotonou, unstopped. He was powerful; he was wealthy, and impenetrable. He was a tin god, apparently belched from the very arroyo hell, we all dreaded him.
REPENTANCE
After serving jail-time for his crimes, he was converted by an evangelist and became a Christian evangelical pastor. Shina Rambo now Mathew Oluwanifemi was a name that sent shivers down the spine of people who lived in the South West of Nigeria and even outside Nigeria, like Benin Republic and neighborhood, in the 1990s.
8 Other Nigerian Looters’ list
Looting of money in Nigeria isn’t anything new. Corruption in Nigeria didn’t just start today as there are people in the history of Nigeria that have looted millions and billions of dollars from Nigeria’s treasury.
This set of people are today celebrated as hero’s instead of being probed or put behind bars. Some of them were even put on the list of richest politicians in Nigeria as released by the FBI.
Gen Sani Abacha
In Nigeria’s history, he was termed a dictator who never valued human rights. The money he looted while in power was difficult to put together as more facts of the money Abacha’s stole still emerges today. It was did that he looted 9.01bn pounds, 4.09bn swiss franc, 800M USD, and 3.01M Deutschmark. He was the de facto Military head of state of Nigeria and reigned from 1993 to 1998 after he overthrew IBB.
He was one time Vice Admiral of the Nigerian Navy and vice to General Abdusalami Abubakar, former head of state in Nigeria. He looted 1.24bn pounds, 2.42bn, swiss franc, and 671M USD, 1bn Deutschmark.
Gen. Jerry Useni
Fourth on our list of people who squandered Nigeria’s money is General Jerry Useni. He was a Lt. General in the Nigerian Army and was once the appointed minister responsible for the administration of the Federal Capital Territory under Sani Abacha military regime. He served in other political positions. He looted 3.04bn Pounds, 2.01bn Swiss franc, 1.01bn USD, and 900M Deutschmark.
Alh Ismaila Gwarzo
Under Abacha’s military rule, Ismaila was the National Security Adviser. He was a senior police officer until his retirement. He looted 1.03bn pounds, 2.00bn swiss franc, 1.3bn USD, and 700M Deutschmark.
Alh Umaru Dikko
Umaru Diko was hunted by Buhari for looting 4.5bn pounds, 1.4bn swiss franc, 700M USD, and 345M Deutschmark. He was an adviser to President Shehu Shagari and the Nigerian minister for Transportation from 1979 to 1983.
Paul Ogwuma
He served as Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria under two administrations. He looted 300M pounds, 1.42bn swiss franc, 200M USD and 500M Deutschmark. He is also among the top 10 Nigerian looters in history.
Mohammed Abacha
Just like his father, he too was involved in looting funds from Nigeria treasury during his father’s regime. He is the eldest surviving son of the late Dani Abacha’s. He looted 300M pounds, 1.2bn swiss franc, 150M USD, and 535M Deutschmark.
Alhaji Wada Nas
Finally on our list of looters in the history of Nigeria is Wada Nas. It was said that looted 600M pounds, 1.32bn swiss franc, and 300M USD.
It should be pertinent to note that these men took advantage of their positions in office to divert public money to their private purses. Some of these looters still decide how things are run in Nigeria as they have influence over things in Nigeria
9. Other Notorious Criminals’ list
These are Ordinary Nigerians who terrorised, maimed and killed other people. These are some of the most notorious criminals whose names were not mentioned.
Ndiwe Okwudili aka Derico Nwamama
Okwudili Ndiwe most popularly known as Derico Nwamama put the fear of God into the residents of Eastern Nigeria. Oddy as he was called by gang members, rose from being a street urchin to running the criminal underworld in the East. He robbed traders, banks and rich residents. Derico’s daring reign ended when he was nabbed and beheaded by the dreaded vigilante group, Bakassi Boys in July 2001.
Isiaka Busari aka Mighty Joe
Mighty Joe was the deputy of Ishola Oyenusi who rose to notoriety after the execution of his boss. He was even more ruthless than Oyenusi and always boasted he’d never be caught. He was caught after robbing a hotel attendant of N10. He was executed in 1973 after he converted to Islam in prison.
Clifford Orji
Clifford Orji may not have attacked banks like the other guys on this list but his name struck fear into the hearts of many Nigerians. Clifford Orji was a known kidnapper, ritualist and cannibal. He killed, dismembered and ate his victims. He is believed to have died in 2012 in Kirikiri prisons in Lagos.
Kayode Williams
Kayode Williams was a member of Oyenusi’s gang. He was a dreaded armed robber who engaged in rituals. He confessed to pounding day-old babies for use in protection charms. He was caught and served 10 years in jail. Williams is now a pastor who tries to preach and rehabilitate prison inmates.
Otokoto Hotel Gang
In 1996, the city of Owerri in Imo state was shocked when the headless body of little Ikechukwu Okonkwo was discovered in the popular Otokoto hotel. This discovery came after his murderer was spotted carrying a human head by an Okada man who alerted the police.
The investigation led the police to the Otokoto hotel owned by Chief Vincent Duru where more bodies were found buried in shallow graves. It was learnt that the hotel served as a den of ritualists where unwary travellers and lodgers were drugged, killed, dismembered and buried in on the hotel grounds. 6 people were executed by firing squad in 1997 for the murder of little Ikechukwu Okonkwo including the son of the owner of the hotel.
10. Other Fraud Suspects On-the-run, Declared
Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has declared these suspects wanted for various crimes.
Abdulrasheed Abdullahi Maina.
The former Chairman of Pension Reform Task Team (PRTT) is wanted for offenses bordering on procurement fraud and obtaining by false pretense. Maina is allegedly complicit in the over N2 billion Pensions Biometric Scam in the office of the Head of Civil Service of the Federation.
Iliasu Olanrewaju Abdul-Rauf
EFCC notified the public that Alhaji Iliasu Olanrewaju Abdul-Rauf, the National Coordinator, Federal Civil Service Staff with Disabilities Multipurpose Cooperative is wanted in a case of impersonation, criminal conspiracy, obtaining money under false pretence, and money laundering.
Top Federal Civil Service Officer, Iliasu allegedly collected the sum of N1.7Billion under the guise of awarding contracts for the establishment of rehabilitation centers across the 36 states of the federation.
The fair complexioned Abdul-Rauf has refused to honor all invitations by the EFCC and his whereabouts is unknown.
His known addresses include; No.14, Dennis Osadebe street, Asokoro and No.1 & 2, Usman Danfodio Street, opposite Presidential Banquet Hall, both in Abuja.
Former governor of Jigawa state, Saminu Turaki
is wanted by EFCC in connection with a case of criminal conspiracy, stealing, money laundering and misappropriation of public funds to the tune of N36 Billion.
Kennedy Izuagbe
He’s the Managing Director of Carlisle Properties and Investment Limited, he is wanted in a case of Conspiracy and Money Laundering to the tune of over N3.6 billion. In the course of investigation, Izuagbe went underground and all efforts to reach him have proved abortive.
Olabode Jacob O Obayomi
The owner of Standard Chartered Securities Limited of 116-118, Lagos House, Central Area, Garki, Abuja is wanted in connection with a case of Criminal Conspiracy, Diversion of Public Funds and Breach of trust involving the unauthorized sale of over N251 million worth of stock belonging to Ebonyi State Government.
Etim Ekpo Okima
Managing director/ chief executive officer of Etisko BDC, 11, Abibu Oki Street, Lagos Island, Lagos, is wanted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in a case of stealing and issuance of dud cheque.
Osita Emmanuel Okereke
DG National Taskforce to Combat Illegal Importation of Goods, Small Arms, Ammunitions and Light Weapon, (aka NATFORCE), is wanted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in a case of Criminal Conspiracy and Impersonation. Okereke who was arrested with several incriminating items, including, bulletproof vests has jumped bail.
Agbebi Samuel Adebanji
Adebanji of Hepa Global Energy Limited, 33, Creek Road, Apapa, Lagos, whose photograph appears above, is wanted b for conspiracy and illegal dealing in Petroleum Product. He was on board vessel MT Good Success carrying 1,459 metric tonnes of Premium Motor Spirit, instead of the 350 metric tons of Automotive Gas Oil, AGO, it was licensed to carry.