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Notorious ex-armed robber Shina Rambo: How I tormented Lagosians, Police
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Sina Fadare 26/06/2011 01:56:00
Shina Rambo Shina Rambo was a household name in the world of crime -
fearful, ruthless, dangerous and a terror in the society. The former
kingpin and a serpent to security agencies is now a professed Evangelist
and maverick preacher who is as meek as a dove. In this encounter with
Sina Fadare, he poured out his mind on how he tormented Lagosians, the
police and how he snatched 42 exotic cars in a day and how he remained
invisible for the police dragnet.
What’s your background and where are you actually from?
It is true that people are always confused about where l come from. Actually my father came from Abeokuta in Ogun State, but I from Sanbogida-Ora in Edo State. That is where my mother came from and where l lived all my early life.
How did you acquire the name Sina Rambo?
There is a saying in Yoruba that a child acquires any name that
suits him when he was not in his place of birth. That was the
appellation l was given in those days when l ventured into the world of
crime. The name that was given to me at birth was Omokenwa, meaning a
child is the one that takes care of the home. The meaning of Sina Rambo
stands for a team or a group of deadly squad with a mission. I was the
Rambo. Therefore, the merging of Shina with Rambo is just like any
organisation like cooperative society which has each name to identify
their group, yet they belong to the same cooperative society. To those
people who thought that l came from Cotonou, Republic of Benin,
or Sabongida- Ora, they are all correct because wherever you are living
or place you are used to, that is your home. Though my father is from
Abeokuta, many people did not know me there because apart from Cotonou where my operating business took me, l
lived my adolescent life in Edo State, the place of my mother.
At what point in your life did you veer into crime?
Everything comes down to the lackadaisical attitude of my parents
in taking adequate care of my need when l was growing up. My father was a
military man who married virtually everywhere he was posted to in his
career; this gave him the opportunity to have many wives. One of the
early memories l could recollect which l will never forget in my life
was that my father was the first person to cut me with a cutlass. That
is why l said that the nonchalant attitude of my parents dragged me into
the world of crime.
Was that actually what led you into crime?
I will say that the moment a child lacks parental care, love and
attention, such a child is being nursed towards crime. In my own case it
was a combination of many things that led me to the world of crime.
Poor and not caring family, later my business was almost grinded when
some of my goods were confiscated. Along the line, my younger brother
was also killed; in the mission of avenging l was gradually involved in
crime and before l knew it l wanted to excel in it. What we called the
real Shina Rambo lives inside.
Your name created tremor among people in society, the security operatives inclusive, how did you get such power?
If a child knows how to wash his hand well, definitely he will eat
with the elders. I know how to appease the elders, therefore anything l
need from them l usually get it. Now that l am in Christ, l know better.
The fact is if you decide to eat with the devil, make sure you do it to
a logical conclusion and if you want to follow Christ, let him be your
sole companion in anything that you are doing. I got power in the world
of devil, and l followed it to a logical conclusion. In the world of the
devil, police or any security has nothing to do with us, as a daredevil
robber then. There are certain things which an armed robber should
have. The first is what you call afoola. We used many human beings to do
this native medicine, including a foetus in his mother’s womb. The
second is ikiya (boldness).
This will give you the audacity and effrontery to do anything at
any time no matter how dangerous the venture is. The third one is that
anybody who wants to venture into highlevel robbery must be ready to
squeeze all the water inside his eye and use it for a powerful medicine,
so that there is nothing that would happen that such a person will cry
again, no matter how devastating or big such a calamity is. I searched
for power from the demons of various types, inside the most powerful
water called water of the world at a town called Ogoja. All leaders of
the world who are actually looking for power used to go inside this
water. At that point when I was on operation l will put on the
appearance of different types of people to the extent that it was
difficult for anybody to identify my real being. There is no amount of
picture that you took that you will get a clear view. That was why when
they said that, ‘Oh! they have
killed Shina Rambo,’ but it was another person that they would kill
instead. From that place, l went to Oke Idanre and later Enugu and Abeokuta to look for power that can make me to be invisible at will.
I was able to have a magical power that allowed me to look
differently in eight places. At Abeokuta, the nine herbalists that did
the medicine for me were killed so that one day they will not reveal the
secret behind the medicine to any mortal. There is a place in Oyo State called Fiditi;
lawyers also go there to look for power. Along the line l entered into
different cults that are very powerful. There they have to change my
body because l was buried alive for seven days in the burial ground and
my soul was kept in a small coffin. After the seventh day, l became
powerful and more dangerous, too hot to be handled by anybody. Again l
went inside the Iroko tree to seek for power. In fact, you will not
believe the number of houses that you will find inside the Iroko tree,
its a whole town inside the tree. When you get there, you are going to
chant some incantations and the door will open, you will see various
types of people
engaging in activities like selling, eating, having meeting and doing
all sorts of things done in the physical world. When l went there, we
entered through the ninth door before we entered the town. I was able to
do this because l was able to produce for the elders what they needed,
so they were ready to give me what l wanted and ready to take me to
wherever it would be possible for me to get what l wanted. There was a
time l was taken to a burial place with 15 heads to go and to collect
some charms from the spirit. From there, l was fortified to the extent
that there is no bullet that could enter my body, it will just be like
pure water.
What is your relationship with the police?
Normally we and the police are supposed to be enemies, but
unfortunately a lot of them are our friends. There are some policemen
who are mere saboteurs; they love money more than the job. Such police
officers are mole in the force because they sell vital information to
robbers and most of the time turned their back when their “friends” are
on the road. At this point in time, it is people like us who could
assist government to nab criminals because l know their antics and modus
operandi. Not all of police are bad, but there are some moles among
them that are spoiling their good work. These few ones know the real
robbers and most of the time assist them (robbers) to achieve their
deadly mission.
You were once rich and famous where is the wealth today?
In the first instance, where did all the luxuries come from? No
matter how plenty the devil gives, it is for a short period, he will
collect it back. No matter how smart you are, any covenant with the
devil, you are going to lose at the end. It is the devil that will give
you a cap and in return asking buba and gele from you. Vanity upon
vanity all is vanity. There is nothing that one can gain from the devil
apart from frustration and humiliation; at the end you are going to have
disappointment. You can imagine when I would strike and snatch more
than 30 cars. I once snatched over 42 cars in a day. Some of the cars I
gave to whomever I wanted. I had so much then. Paul said in Philippians
3:7-13 “But, all that amounted to profit for me in life, I have now seen
as loss in Christ”. Verse 13 now says, “Brethren, I have forgotten the
things that are behind, I press towards things ahead.” In Psalm 126:1,
the same Bible
tells me that “when God returns the loss of Zion, we would be like them
that dream”. I know that to rise in Christ is the responsibility of
every member of the household of faith. The Holy Spirit would use every
true Christian to put on real genuine footing. The devil gave me so much
at that time and it took what it gave me. If I have to recall the
painful details and the anguish, it does not worth it because I am a new
creature. What has been destroyed cannot be restored just like that. We
are now in Christ, he owns and dispenses eternal joy, when we end our
race here, we would return to our eternal home: heaven, where there is
no weeping, no anxiety, anguish, hunger and pain.
Do you have any godfather?
Definitely. When we were in Edo,
we had our godfather who is always there for us anytime we went on
operation. It was the same place that the likes of Anini, a.k.a. the law
and Monday Osunbor Pero, and Lucky learnt the rudiment of robbery. We
sprung up from one source.
What usually comes to your mind any day you are going for operation?
The first thing that readily came to mind was that ‘the dead must
be done’. But before that, we must first ask people who owns the world
how the day would look like before we step out. There is a charm called
atona (Pathfinder) that we consult before we go out. It would tell us
what we are going to do and which sacrifice we are going to make before
we move out. Again there is what we call eru (fear) which has been
deposited into my body, wherever l go, that fear will not let you
challenge my authority.
Where and how did you get the ammunition you were using?
As I told you that my father was a military man, from the beginning
gun had been assembled and dismembered in our house. Innocently, my
father will be doing this virtually on a daily basis and he tells me to
go and bring one or two things that had connection with the gun in the
house and at the end he would put the gun together as one. From that
daily experience l knew how to handle a gun and by the time l left him,
there was no gun l could not put together. Ironically, what parents did
not take serious and handle with levity, the kids are fast learning and
before you know it, they have mastered the act. If it is a bad habit,
the family will definitely pay for it. The gun l was using then was in
pieces when brought from outside the country. I later put it together to
make it a complete gun. After that l return it into the world of
darkness where it was changed to the gun of the elders. After this l
just recite a few
incantations to the gun and whatever l ask the gun to do is what it
will do. However there is no gun that l cannot handle a few minutes
after studying it.
Those who are working with you, how were they trained?
There is always time for training; we teach them how to handle it
and how to get their target. It was an extensive training which we
normally do most of the time especially when we are going on operation.
All those that are working with me are all in the same cult, they know
our dos and don’ts, we have gone to many places together, that was why
it was difficult for the police to kill anyone of us. There is a general
charm that the death that is meant to kill anyone of us should kill
outsiders. There are some incantations to back it up and it would be
backed up in the world of darkness. Therefore anywhere we go on
operation, instead of recording any casualty, it is the people around
that will die.
Can you recollect how many people your gun had killed?
No, they are just plenty that l cannot remember. Aside from this, l
used a lot of people for sacrifice that l cannot even remember. I don’t
want to remember those dark days.
Now that you are a pastor, do you believe that there is a curse that actually affected your destiny?
You are right. There is a saying in Yoruba that it is only in war
that one can die accidentally, but a curse has a target and no matter
the year it was invoked it will still be operational. That crisis and
curse entered my life when l was still in my mother’s womb. My father is
a polygamist and one day there was a quarrel between my mother and my
father’s mother. Then l was told that my father’s mother invoked a curse
on my mother that she will never deliver me in peace otherwise she is
not from Ikereke (a town in Oyo
State) and my mother replied that she will have a normal delivery as
God lives otherwise she will not serve God if she comes in the next
word. From that altercation from both, the curse entered into my life
and l carried the curse and the burden until l met Christ.
How do you handle women and wine?
I engaged in all what you can call devilish ventures, like smoking
of Indian hemp, wine and in the company of women of easy virtue. I was
in a hotel with about 58 women playing with me, but the warning from the
world of darkness is that l should not take any of them to bed. The
instruction l followed to the letter. Then l love women but there was a
boundary which l must not cross. I am compelled to have fun with my only
wife who knew my entire venture into the world of darkness. That was
why all the women sent to me cannot do anything to me. Though l spent
for them, but that was just the limit l could go.
Is it true that you once spent N50 million a day?
How many of that do you want to count, plenty? There was a time we went for an operation in Lagos,
and it seemed we were in a tight corner, we just decided to be giving
out the money to the people in order to escape. There was commotion,
everybody was trying to pick as many naira notes as they can pick.
Did your friends know the type of person you were?
You know birds of the same feather always flock together. The
so-called friends that l was moving with as at then were also into one
form of shady deals or the other. But the funny thing is that nobody
could identify my being with what l was doing. Even if some of them know
me they cannot say it out because it was too dangerous and there was
nobody l cannot kill. I usually come out in different faces which made
it difficult for anybody to really identify me. That was the power given
to me in the world of darkness.
Who was the lady that used to accompany you to all operations?
She was not a human being, though people referred to her as an
alhaja, but she was a demon donated to me in the world of darkness. She
will dress the way l dressed and must always be with me any time I am
going out on operation. She is the one that was picked from the kingdom
of Satan to be my partner.
How did you meet Christ?
It was such a miraculous way. I met Christ at a cross road. It was a
miracle l did not expect. I met Christ through Prophet T. O. Obadare. I
made myself available to the police and l have to bear all the
detention and all the agonies l faced for about 11 years. A lot of
Christian brothers rallied round me with conviction that l should give
my life to Christ. Then Papa Obadare came to me in the prison that
though l was expecting death, God has removed death from my head if I am
ready to surrender everything to him. In my own thinking l thought all
was over, with all the atrocities l had committed, but God showed me
mercy and gave me the second chance. So when l slept, l saw that the
cloth of yoke and burden was removed from my neck, l was off from the
bondage of Satan, a new cloth was given to me. By the time l woke up, l
was talking in tongues. From that encounter, for the first time in my
life that my soul would calm
down, l learnt how to pray. I stopped taking cocaine and Indian hemp.
Everything about me became new.
What do you think government can do to stop robbery?
The simple truth is that we cannot stop robbery, but we can reduce
it to the barest minimum, because we asked for it. In Matthew 27, we
asked for it. They said Barnabas should be released instead of Jesus
Christ, when Pilate said that this man did not commit any sin. They said
no way, release Barnabas and let his blood be on us and on our
children. Ever since then robbery and killing became the order of the
day. Government should be able to tap from the wealth of experience of
people like us who can decode a lot of knotty issues as regard how to
curb the menace of armed robbery. Some of those that are inside the
prison are not supposed to be there. By the time they are out, they
become hardened criminals. I pray that God will help us to make things
work in this country, if he could locate me from the pit of darkness
where l sojourned, and now in Christ, he will deliver the country from
bad leaders who make things
difficult for the masses.
MY GOD IS ABLE TO DO ALL THINGS. SirDeno They said the revolution will not be televised. Then came Al Jazeera and twitter has them paralyzed. |