About 13 years ago, Samuel Tanimola ran away from home in Ifo, Ogun State, at the age of 10 years. He came to Lagos and settled down in Dopemu area of the state.
Tanimola, who is now a vulcaniser, told our correspondent that he was fed up with the living condition at home.
However, things were not as easy as he had hoped. He had no friend and knew nobody in the new place he found himself, yet he had to feed.
Tanimola joined hordes of street children roaming the streets and feeding through the use of their wits until he was eventually arrested by the Environmental Task force on Special Offences in 2004.
He said, “I ran away because I was not happy at home; it was a polygamous setting and my mum was not living with us.
“Although things were tough on the street, it was better than home. I even tried to escape when the police raided Dopemu that day. They grabbed as many of us as they could lay hands on and took us to the remand home at Oregun. I was so scared that I imagined the worst.”
For two years, Tanimola remained at the Oregun Juvenile Centre under close supervision without any contact with the outside world.
