The Rise & Fall Of Derico Nwamama, Nig’s King of The Underworld (MUST READ)

INTRODUCTION (Note: Click the Arrow button to continue reading)

It was 16 long years ago. The year 2001, and everything was quite topsy-turvy in the country. The nation was still smarting from the Y2K scare that the world was going to come to an abrupt end and all computers would stop functioning at the exact strike of midnight on the 31st of December, 1999.

Doomsday prophets went gaga, milking an ignorant populace from their brisk and dark businesses as they went around screaming the world was going to end. Nigeria was also experiencing the post-delivery pangs of democracy having just regained freedom from stifling military rule in 1999 following General Sani Abacha’s sudden and mysterious death. But away from all these superficial trivia, there were more disturbing issues heating up the polity and one of the most nerve-tangling of these was insecurity. Insecurity was all over the land, and the speed and ferocity with which violence was spreading was heartbreaking, to say the least.

Together, with the binoculars of history, we zoom in on southeastern Nigeria with Abiyamo as the legendary story of Derico Nwamama, Nigeria’s King of the Underworld is retold like never before. 2001 was a very turbulent year for Nigeria and one of the states that bore the biggest brunt of the madness and political violence was Anambra.
My beautiful Anambra, the land of the greats and the finest okpa di oku . But for a land that has produced some of Africa’s greatest, all was far from well. The people of Onitsha could not display their wares with peace while going to bed at night was horror. All because of one 22-year-old lad who went by the name Okwudili Ndiwe, better known as Derico Nwamama or simply Derico. A frustrated Governor Chinwoke Mbadinuju tried all tricks in the book to hook this damaged crook but all efforts failed until he went unconventionally ballistic.

Psychologically-traumatized and emotionally-battered, the people of Anambra went to their markets petrified and whenever there was a commotion with shouts of Derico renting the air, they fled in different directions, like the sprayed ashes from the palms of a dibia. It did not take long before the despicable name of Derico was on the mouth of everyone in and around the state. He was aptly described as the personification of terror. From Nnewi to Nkpor, from the villages in Umuleri to towns in Ihiala, the old and young were terrified at the mere whisper of Derico. Nwamama. Nwa. Mama. But as a saying goes, no condition is permanent and Derico would soon meet the nastiest of all ending.