Neusroom to publish new series on Nigeria’s most vicious robbery kingpins, after five months of research
After more than five months of extensive research, Neusroom will present a new series on seven of Nigeria’s robbery kingpins whose crimes from the late 1960s to the early 2000s left behind a long list of victims, and mysteries across the West African nation.
Titled ‘Kingpins: The story of Nigeria’s most notorious armed robbers,’ the reports will help readers understand that era in Nigeria’s history, shortly after independence in 1960, when armed robbery became a big problem.
It also seeks to present new perspectives, and interrogate some myths about the bandits.
The first report will go live on Friday April 9, 2021. One story will be published everyday for the next seven days.
The project took more than five months of research, including several weeks of chasing down information from the Nigeria Police Force, the Nigeria Correctional Service and the Directorate of Public Prosecution.
The Neusroom team also travelled from Lagos to the National Archive at the University of Ibadan, Oyo State, to review newspaper publications from the early 1970s reporting the atrocities of these men. There are interviews with a former editor of Daily Times newspaper in the 1970s, Ben Lawrence, and Bishop Kayode Williams, a protege of Ishola Oyenusi, one of Nigeria’s most vicious armed robbers.
The revelations from the month-long endeavours are laid bare in this series which has seven stories, each highlighting the profile, atrocities and previously untold stories of seven dreaded kingpins – Abiodun Egunjobi aka Godogodo, Lawrence Anini, Ishola Oyenusi, Isiaka Busari aka Mighty Joe, Babatunde Folorunso aka Baba Oni Lace, Bishop Kayode Williams, and Shina Rambo.
The series will be published, one story daily for seven days, from Friday April 9, 2021 on Neusroom.com.
If you have any information you think could help us understand the subjects better; or that could present fresh perspectives on the activities of these notorious criminals, please email [email protected] or send us a direct message @neusroom.
