22/08/2025
Derico Nwamama: One of the Most Feared Armed Robbers in Nigeria’s History
In the bustling town of Aguleri in Anambra State, sometime in the late 1970s, a child was born who would one day haunt the nightmares of southeastern Nigeria. His name was Okwudili Ndiwe, but the world would come to know him as Derico Nwamama.
Like many young boys in the chaotic Nigeria of the 1990s, Okwudili grew up amidst poverty, instability, and the lure of fast money. His first steps into crime were small pickpocketing, snatching purses in the busy markets of Onitsha and blending into the crowd like a ghost.
But Derico was no ordinary petty thief. He was daring, cunning, and dangerously ambitious.
As the years passed, Derico began to build a name in Onitsha’s criminal underworld.
His turning point came when he eliminated another feared criminal, known as Chiejina. That brutal act wasn’t just a gangland ex*****on, it was a power grab, and from that moment, Derico was king.
He quickly formed a heavily armed gang, carried out bank robberies, interstate bus ambushes, and orchestrated mass killings. His cruelty stunned even hardened criminals. His operations were meticulously planned: he lived luxuriously in Abuja, only returning to the East to strike. After each heist, he vanished untraceable and untouchable.
By the year 2000, Derico had become a walking legend. Stories circulated that bullets couldn’t pierce his skin, that he was protected by powerful charms from native doctors.
He openly boasted: “No man born of a woman can kill me.”
Derico’s gang became notorious for:
Bank robberies, often leaving behind blood and destruction.
Highway ambushes, especially on the roads between Onitsha, Asaba, and Agbor.
Threat letters to the police, warning them not to touch his men.
Killings of robbed passengers sometimes for fun and sometimes to eliminate witnesses.
His most horrifying crime occurred in December 2000, at Upper Iweka, Onitsha. Derico stopped a 59-seater bus returning from L