Lagos Bar Beach: How popular fun spot became center of executing criminals
In 1971, the Lagos Bar Beach gained global recognition for something entirely different from what beach fronts across the world are known for – it became the execution ground for convicted armed robbers and coup plotters by firing squad. But it wasn’t always that way, it was a fun spot.
Before the now famous Elegushi Beach, Kuramo Beach and other sea fronts became hub of fun seekers in Lagos, the Bar Beach located along Ahmadu Bello Way in Victoria Island used to be the go to place for picnic, to wine and unwind. However, the rising cases of crime in different parts of the country and activities of coup plotters changed the fortune of Bar Beach to an execution ground.
The disturbing and daring activities of notorious armed robbers like Ishola Oyenusi aka Doctor in the late 1960s to early 1970s prompted the military regime of General Yakubu Gowon who was the then Head of State to promulgate the Robbery and Firearms (Special Provisions) Decree of 1970, to send all convicted criminals to the firing squad.
A former Lagos Police Commissioner Abubakar Tsav in a recent interview with The Punch said the decree “was promulgated to serve as a deterrent to others and that was the only language they (criminals) understood. The government was very concerned and that was why the decree was made”.
What partly contributed to the rise in criminal activities during that time was the civil war. A wave of armed robberies followed the civil war which pitched other parts of Nigeria against the Igbos over its declaration of secession from Nigeria following the counter coup of 1966. The coup claimed the lives of many Igbos in the Nigerian Army.
Many of the notorious armed robbers who etched their names in Nigeria’s history books of dreaded criminals became prominent after the 30‐month civil war which ended in 1970. Many accounts say some returning soldiers also channeled their military skills to aiding criminals, while others sold guns and ammunition on a glutted market.
The casualties were not only those who died in the war just like renowned poet John pepper Clark wrote in his famous poem “The Casualties”, the living also shared in the suffering and humanitarian crisis caused by the war.
“The population of the cities doubled, stretching communications, services and tempers to the limit. Inflation and blood pressure soared, and violence became increasingly commonplace,” a report in the New York Times of March 19, 1979 read.
While criminals were terrorising the cities, soldiers who held grudges against the military hierarchy and the government in power also strategised to overthrow the government through coups. When such plans fail, the coup plotters knew their fate was death by firing squad at the Bar Beach.
Robbery kingpins like Babatunde Folorunsho aka ‘Baba oni lace’, Ishola Oyenusi aka Dr Rob and Kill alongside members of his gang became the first set of armed robbers to be publicly executed by firing squad at Bar Beach on September 8, 1971. His second-in-command Isiaka Busari (aka Mighty Joe), who carried on with the nefarious trade also fell before a firing squad on the Bar Beach in 1973.
Youpelle Dakuro, an army deserter who was said to be an expert in daylight robbery could not escape the rain of bullets on the beach. Then Lawrence Anini aka “the Law”, the fiery armed robber who terrorised Benin City and other communities in then Bendel State (now Edo and Delta States) was executed before a firing squad on the Bar Beach with his gang members on March 29, 1987.
A former defense minister, Major General I. D. Bisalla, and 29 others were also executed at the Bar Beach in March 1976 for their role in the February 13, 1976 coup attempt that led to the death of former Head of State, General Murtala Muhammed, his driver, an aide and a military governor of Kwara State, Colonel Ibrahim Taiwo.
According to the New York Times, there was always a radio announcement inviting spectators to the public execution which attracted a boisterous crowd of thousands. The crowd most of whom had lived under fear of attacks by the dreaded armed robbers usually lined the road along the beach to catch a glimpse of the end of the men who terrorised the nation either as armed robbers or coup plotters.
Before their execution, the convicts were tied to a stake and blindfolded, and a squad of rifle-bearing soldiers take up positions in front of them and fire them until they were sure they are all dead. The transition from military rule to democracy led to a decline in the number of convicted criminals executed by the government. Following calls from within and outside the country for the abolition of public execution and capital punishment, in 2003, ex-president Olusegun Obasanjo put a moratorium in place which temporarily halted execution of criminals.
Obasanjo’s moratorium on executions did not stop courts from sentencing people to death. The death penalty is still on the statute books in Nigeria, and the Nigerian Constitution of 1999 does not prohibit its application.
“Public execution is very brutal. It doesn’t portray us well in the eyes of the international community,” Tsav said in a recent interview commending the abolition of public execution of criminals. “So, as far as I’m concerned, the cessation of public executions is very good”.
In present day Lagos, the Bar Beach is gone. What used to be an execution ground and fun spot now houses the Eko Atlantic City – a residential and business district standing on 10 million square metres of land reclaimed from the ocean and protected by an 8.5 kilometre-long sea wall.
Akinwumi Ambode, then governor of Lagos, while unveiling the Eko Black Pearl Tower, one of the residential high rise buildings located in the Eko Atlantic City in November 2016 said “It will improve the economy of the State, increase the internally generated revenue, and translate to further employment opportunities for our unemployed youths.”.
This story was first published on May 30, 2020.
Cover design by Tobi Yinka.
