NB247
Reports making the rounds on social media indicate that Kayode Uanreroro, the police officer who arrested the notorious armed robber, Lawrence Anini, has passed away.
He was said to have died on Sunday morning, the 14th of September, 2025 in Lagos.
Lawrence Nomanyagbon Anini was a Nigerian bandit who terrorised Benin City in the 1980s along with his sidekick, Monday Osunbor.
Anini in court during his trial
He was in his usual merriment mood on December 3, 1986 in the company of ladies at No. 26, Oyemwosa Street, opposite Iguodala Primary School, Benin City, when Uanreroro, then a Superintendent of Police, acting on a tip-off, led his team to invade the house and apprehended him with very little resistance.
He was later tried along with his cohorts and sentenced to death by firing squad by the military Armed Robbery and Firearms Tribunal.
Mr Uanreroro was the commandant at the Mopol training school at Gwoza when it was suggested to then IGP that if they were serious about getting Anini, Kayode was to be detailed for the task.
Standing at over six feet, dark and rippling with muscles with a no-nonsense visage, Mr Uanreroro, apart from being a crack Police detective also had a black belt in Karate. He had had many encounters with armed robbers and many had paid dearly. He was naturally the man to go after Anini who had become a kind of National embarrassment.
In a couple of weeks and acting on intelligence, Mr Uanreroro and his ten man team of crack policemen working in mufti but heavily armed stormed into a Benin city house where Lawrence Anini was hiding. The latter wasn’t expecting the Police. He was shot on his left ankle by Kayode and immobilized. That was the end of the reign of Lawrence Anini and the national embarrassment he orchestrated also was terminated.
Shortly after that Mr Uanreroro left the Police service and became the Chief security officer of a top bank.
Those who knew him said he lived in the Akoka area of Lagos and was a jolly fellow, a perfect gentleman and giant and rarely talked of his escapades in the Police.
He was said have proceeded to study law and had his private Law office in Ebute-Metta area of Lagos and practiced law till his demise.
May his soul rest in peace