The Rise & Fall Of Derico Nwamama, Nig’s King of The Underworld (MUST READ)
By THE HUNT, SEARCH AND CAPTURE OF DERICO
Around May 2001, the Anambra State Police Command launched the Operation Derico which was aimed at capturing Derico and his gang members. There had been Operation Thunderbolt, Operation Abortion, Operation Cobra
and Operation Mimicry to capture other armed robbers, especially those based in the Umuleri-Aguleri axis of the state. The police had varying degrees of success with these operations but they were never able to lay their hands on the dreaded Derico. They were on a wild goose chase.
Governors of the predominantly Igbo southeastern states were fed up with the spiraling level of violence from armed robbery, kidnapping and ritual murders. They decided to launch their own paramilitary outfits that would provide adequate security to the people. These vigilante outfits were to work in collaboration with the police force. Thus came the Bakassi Boys. However, it was not a solely southeastern thingy. The southwest had their own Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC), there was the Arewa Youth Consultative Forum (AYCF) in the north, Niger Delta Volunteers Force (NDVF), Ogoni Youth, Ijaw Youths and even the Egbesu Boys in Bayelsa. There was also the ruthless Mambilla Militia Group (aka Ashana No Case To Answer) in Taraba State. It was a time of near-anarchy. Not that it is all paradise now anyways (impunity still continues unabated in Nigeria with domestic terrorism spiraling out of control, as at the time of writing this, the kidnappers of the Nigerian President’s cousin turned down the sum of N30 million, calling it shikini money)..
Enjoying immense support from the local populace, the Bakassi Boys were at the forefront of the hunt and capture of Derico Nwamama. The violent and unbroken streak of Derico would come to a sudden but dramatic end on a Tuesday, the 3rd of July, 2001. He was captured by the much-dreaded Bakassi Boys, the militant wing of the Anambra Vigilante Services (AVS) in Onitsha, which happened to be his hometown. He was on the way to Onitsha from Agbor in Delta State.
Following the news of his capture, Onitsha erupted in joy and cheers. As the Bakassi Boys cruised and swerved round the city at neck-breaking speeds in their buses brandishing cutlasses, charms and all kinds of weapons, they were hailed as heroes and were treated to rapturous applauses wherever they went. Okada (motorcycle) riders, marketwomen, traders and school children trooped out onto the streets in their hundreds to celebrate the much-anticipated capture of the man who turned their nights into nightmares and their dreams into nibbly hopelessness. The police and Bakassi Boys had been combing everywhere for Derico for more than a year before he fell into the trap specifically laid for him…
Derico had killed over 100 people including 15 officers of the Nigerian Police whose lives he mercilessly wasted. He was a master of countless bus robberies and will not blink twice before pumping his hot lead bullets into the beating hearts of hapless victims. Before the coming of the Bakassi Boys, Derico sacked commercial banks in Onitsha carting away millions of naira of customer savings. What happened to those that he wrecked financially can only be imagined. And after his successful raids, he would boast and declare himself invincible. Derico seemed to have placed a lot of faith and confidence in the charms prepared for him by the traditional witchdoctors. According to reports, some of the charms were made inside some of the most well-known rivers in the state. He believed in the power of the amulets but eventually, the nakedness of his foolishness was laid bare.
In one of his last operations in June 2001, his daredevil gang descended upon the Achalla Police Station in Awka North Local Government with all the…