Rescued from the streets: Former area boys recount journeys from despair to purpose

From orphanhood and abandonment to drug addiction, abuse and life on the streets, VICTOR AYENI tells the stories of former street touts whose lives were transformed through rescue, rehabilitation and reintegration into society

At first sight, Ahmed Oyewale (not his real name) cut the image of an upwardly mobile, professional Lagos youth. Nothing about him seemed to reflect the hoops he had leapt through in life.

Clad in a cream-coloured, short-sleeved, breathable outfit that mirrored his easygoing demeanour, the studs in Oyewale’s ears shimmered against his dark skin, while his dreadlocks gave him a distinctive look.

The 34-year-old smiled warmly as he sat down to speak with this reporter, pointing to an artwork hanging on the wall that he admired.

The native of Ijebu Igbo, Ogun State, now works as an assistant production manager at a firm in Lagos State.

As he settled into his seat for an interview with Saturday PidomNigeria, he began by showing one of the photographs taken during his graduation from a state university.

“Not even in my wildest dreams would I have imagined that I would one day become a graduate or be where I am today,” Oyewale said with a wistful smile.

Born in Lagos to a mother who worked in a public corporation, Oyewale’s childhood was marked by tragedy. He lost his father at the age of eight, leaving his mother to raise him alone.

Despite the devastating loss, she ensured he attended private primary and secondary schools. But just as life appeared to be taking shape, tragedy struck again while he was in SS2.

*”My mother died in 2008. She went to bed and didn’t wake up. There were speculations about what could have caused it. Some said it was a spiritual attack, while others said she had hypertension. That was how my world came crashing down.

*”I began living with one of my aunts in Delta State, but I was maltreated there. Later, they took me to a church-run home for troubled or mentally ill children in Patani, a town in the state. My aunt and her children later relocated abroad. I was 17 or 18 at the time.

“When the abandonment and suffering became too much for me, I self-harmed, and the facility took me to a hospital. It was from that hospital that I escaped. To cut a long story short, I eventually returned to Lagos in 2011,” Oyewale recounted.

‘I became a street urchin’

But returning to Lagos did not bring the relief the 34-year-old had hoped for. Instead, the city confronted him with yet another painful reality.

According to him, neither his paternal nor maternal relatives were willing to accommodate him.

Clinging to what he believed was his last hope, he made his way to a church along the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, where his late mother had once served as an ordained pastor.

“When I arrived and appealed to the pastors, some of whom were my mother’s friends, they didn’t seem willing to help. They kept referring me from one office to another until I realised they didn’t care about my situation, despite how much my mother had laboured for and given to the church.

“I slept in the open at the church camp for a while, but I was driven out. So, I resorted to selling sachet water at the entrance. I also slept there at night because I had nowhere else to go. One day, it finally dawned on me that I was only wasting my time there because I was making very little money and needed to find another way to survive.

“From the entrance of that church camp, I boarded a bus and ended up becoming a street urchin in Ketu. I started hanging around louts my age and slept in Ketu and Mile 12 markets at night. It was there that I became hardened. I learned how to pick pockets, do menial jobs for people, smoke and fight to defend myself,” Oyewale said.

Oyewale told Saturday PidomNigeria that after spending more than two years on the streets, his life took an unexpected turn when a family friend recognised him.

“He had known my mother even when she was single. This kind man, whom I now call my father, sent me back to school and sponsored my education up to university level. I was in my early 20s when I was rescued from the streets.

“I remember my close friend on the streets, Moshood. He listened to me speak English one day and told me there was hope for me because I had some education. He dropped out of primary school when he became an orphan like me. Although he was older, he protected me and always found a place for us to sleep.

“There are still many street boys out there without hope. Every time I see them, I remember that I was once one of them. Although I still struggle with some of the bad habits I picked up while living on the streets, I consider myself fortunate,” Oyewale added.

Inside the ‘area boys’ den

In major cities across Nigeria, such as Lagos, Onitsha, Aba and Port Harcourt, it is not uncommon to find ‘area boys’ or ‘omo onile’—loosely organised gangs of street children, teenagers and men.

Lagos particularly attracts many street urchins from neighbouring states because of the high hopes many youths from rural areas have of the city and of one day returning home with great wealth.

Most of them, being school dropouts, cannot afford to return to their homes without some of the ‘milk and honey’ believed to flow in Lagos. Therefore, they are willing to do whatever is necessary to survive the coldness and harshness of the streets.

Known variously as miscreants, agberos or ‘omo jaguda’ (pickpockets), area boys sustain themselves through informal labour, collecting motor park levies, enforcing security, imposing market ground fees, and occasionally engaging in extortion or petty crime.

Many area boys often resort to begging for money, picking up plastic and metal scraps for sale, washing vehicle windows, selling illegal drugs, and working as bus conductors to survive.

After each day’s activities, they usually sleep in dark street corners, uncompleted buildings and under bridges. However, they have to be on the move by dawn to evade arrest by law enforcement agents.

Findings by Saturday PidomNigeria showed that Oshodi, Mushin, Agege, Jakande, Marwa Bus Stop, Isale Eko dumpsite, Ajah Roundabout and Surulere Underbridge are some of the major hotspots where these street urchins reside.

While some area boys migrate singly, others form a sort of commune where they all live together and know one another.

In these enclaves are some minors who were either rejected by their families or dropped out of school and ran away from home to ‘hustle’ in the big city.

These boys, our correspondent learned, usually come under the protection of older area boys who provide them with places to sleep at night and, in some cases, get menial jobs for them during the day.

With this arrangement, the street boys are expected to remit a fixed amount of money from these menial jobs to their area bosses every day. Failure to do so is often met with punishment, such as physical abuse and deprivation of a sleeping space or food.

Other younger area boys, however, survive by stealing phones, which they sell to buy food and illegal drugs or, if the proceeds are substantial, to pay for the services of sex workers.

“Yes, we source drugs from the streets, whether it’s hemp, loud, Colorado, or shisha. Sometimes, your money for the day would be finished on smoke because they make you eat a lot. Some also take cough syrups too.

“Most of those ‘omo ita’ (area boys) you see sleeping during the day under the bridge at Mile 2 or Alaka (Mushin) are high. The senior area boys know, and they don’t care whether you are a minor or not,” a former street boy, who simply gave his name as Bright, told Saturday PidomNigeria.

‘I ran away from home after stealing’

From a young age, Seye Onadipe (not his real name) developed vices that earned him the reputation of being a troublesome boy within the close-knit community where he was born.

When his mother could no longer cope with the reports of petty theft and truancy that turned the five-year-old into a little rebel, she begged a relative to bring her son from Igboho Town in Oyo State to Badagry, Lagos.

But this did nothing to change Onadipe. Whenever his mother wanted to discipline him, he would abscond from the house and sleep on the streets.

“It was as if a voice was always telling me to do whatever I liked and not listen to my mum,” Onadipe, now 19 years old, told Saturday PidomNigeria during a church programme organised for rehabilitated street boys.

“On most days, I would go out and play for hours. I wouldn’t return home, and from there, I would go and sleep in a church. I could spend three days there, or sometimes a whole week, without setting foot at home. I could attend school this week and not go the following week.

“My mother was worried. She prayed for me and took me to a pastor, but there were no changes. When she saw that nothing was improving and it was obvious that I was wasting her money, she pulled me out of the private school when I was in Primary 4,” Onadipe said.

A little stability came into Onadipe’s life when he was enrolled in an apprenticeship programme, but this was short-lived as he began to steal money, food and anything else he could lay his hands on.

In spite of the heavy-handed discipline meted out to him by both parents, he refused to change and began to follow a gang of friends, rebelling against everyone.

“One day, my mother sent me on an errand and gave me her debit card. I withdrew all the money from her account, ran away from home and became a street boy in the Cele/Ijesha axis. I was there for some years before I moved to Oshodi and later to Toll Gate, before relocating to Sango Ota in Ogun State.

“I became part of a gang, which then led me back to Oshodi, and then I followed them to Lekki, where I stayed for a year. From there, I moved to Ajah. I usually picked plastic bottles and sold them to Hausa traders. One of the Hausa scavengers hired me, and I started selling rubber and metal scraps.

“We usually snatched people’s phones and ran into the ghetto. No outsider could follow us into those ghettos unless there was a major raid from the task force, because they are the dens of the senior area boys, but we have access there,” Onadipe recounted.

Onadipe’s rescue came when some church preachers started visiting the area boys to give them food, clothes and anti-malarial medicines.

Eventually, when the 19-year-old was asked if he wanted to leave the streets, he agreed. Now trained in a vocation and accommodated by the church, Onadipe considers himself better off away from the streets.

Raids and rehabilitations

Since 2022, there has been a series of enforcement actions taken by the state government to clamp down on street urchins who resort to begging in the streets.

In several video clips seen by Saturday PidomNigeria, officers of the state task force could be seen arresting street boys (usually minors) who could be seen pleading and crying.

In May, the state Commissioner for Youth and Social Development, Mobolaji Ogunlende, said 143 destitute persons and 25 street children were removed from major roads and public spaces within one year.

Ogunlende added that the rescue operations formed part of the state government’s broader rehabilitation and reintegration strategy aimed at restoring dignity to vulnerable persons while addressing growing social and environmental concerns across Lagos.

He warned against the use of minors for begging or exploitative activities, noting that such actions are punishable under the Child Rights Law of Lagos State.

In January, the state Commissioner for the Environment and Water Resources, Tokubo Wahab, said the task force conducted a raid on street beggars and urchins along the Lekki–Ajah Expressway and in other parts of the state.

He described this “as part of ongoing enforcement efforts to restore order, ensure public safety, and keep our roads and public spaces clear.”

Wahab, in another tweet responding to reality TV star, Anita Akide (Tacha), clarified that while the reality of poverty or the dangers children face on the highways cannot be disputed, the presence of minors on major expressways like Lekki–Epe is precisely why intervention and enforcement are necessary.

“Leaving children to dodge speeding vehicles in the name of compassion is not empathy; it is neglect. To start with, Lagos State public schools are tuition-free with free payment for their WAEC examination.

“Also, Lagos has existing free technical colleges, vocational centres, and skills-acquisition programmes across the state, many of which teach trades such as shoemaking, fashion, photography, ICT, and creative arts.

“Beyond government facilities, community leaders, NGOs, religious bodies, and even elected officials across the state routinely organise free training and empowerment programmes. These interventions may not be perfect, but it is inaccurate to suggest that nothing exists,” he explained.

Wahab disclosed that each time these street children are apprehended, they are profiled. Some are returned to their parents, who mostly do not live in Lagos, while others interested in acquiring skills are given free admission into programmes run by the Ministry of Youth and Social Development.

Checks by Saturday PidomNigeria showed that there are 25 skill acquisition centres across Lagos where these street children are registered and trained.

In 2024, Wahab noted that a similar “removal exercise was carried out in locations such as Victoria Island, Awolowo Way up to Falomo Roundabout, Ikoyi, and Ozumba Mbadiwe Avenue along Lekki Road.”

In videos posted by Wahab on his X handle, minors, apparently below the age of 10, were seen running helter-skelter from operatives, while others who were caught were seen begging for mercy.

According to the commissioner, “This is in a bid to get rid of destitute persons and miscreants causing public nuisance in the areas. Seventeen persons, including 15 minors involved in the unlawful act of street begging in the middle of vehicular traffic and hold-ups, were apprehended during the operations.”

An unending cycle?

Responding to Wahab in a lengthy post on his X handle in January, the founder of Chess in Slums Africa, Tunde Onakoya, faulted the mass arrests of street boys, describing them as “inhumane” and “an absolute waste of everyone’s time.”

Onakoya pointed out that no matter how many times these children are harassed or arrested, they will return to the streets, adding that the problem is complex and multi-layered and requires careful thinking, genuine empathy, and sustained, concerted effort.

“In every corner of the streets of Lagos, we forget that no one becomes an area boy as an adult. It’s the children neglected over time who grow up to become the thugs and area boys we complain bitterly about. I have given the last eight years of my life to working with these children, and I have learnt many painful lessons during this period that continue to keep me up at night.

“There are three major reasons why this problem has festered. The first is that 70 per cent of these kids are not from Lagos; they are mostly from neighbouring states such as Ogun, Oyo, and Kwara and, in some cases, from northern and eastern Nigeria.

“The second reason is the failure of the public education system (primary and secondary schools). Most of the kids drop out of school because they struggle academically and are dismissed as olodos (good-for-nothing) by their overworked and underpaid teachers. In fact, the public secondary school system is the biggest contributor to this problem,” he explained.

The founder of Chess in Slums Africa identified the failure of the family unit as the major factor behind the menace of street children.

“It’s a failure of the family system, underpinned by poverty. Some of them are orphans, some have single parents, while others were sexually abused, even by their own fathers. The stories are deeply painful.

“Through the culmination of these three factors, the kids end up on the streets of Lagos. For them, it’s an escape from hell, and there’s no going back home. Death is a kinder fate. The children at this stage are the ones we now see in traffic.

“I cannot even begin to explain the horrible things that happen to these kids at night in these places. We’ve had many cases where older area boys violently rape the children and, in some cases, even kill them for money rituals,” Onakoya added.

‘Drug addiction made me a tout’

Unlike most children his age, John Aderayo (not his real name) was strong-willed and intelligent.

But in a bid to escape the unhealthy emotional atmosphere at home, he readily embraced life on the streets as a preteen.

“My mother had anger issues,” Aderayo told Saturday PidomNigeria. “Any minor disagreement would turn into a heated argument, and I would storm out of the house in anger to spend time on the streets with my friends. I stopped schooling when I was in JSS2 and spent more time on the streets, where I knew my mother couldn’t find me.

“I became so addicted to drugs that I couldn’t eat, sleep, or feel normal without them. Sometime in 2020, my mother found me, and I followed her home. But by September the following year, I was back on the streets with bad friends, committing atrocities.

“It was in 2024 that I met some preachers from a church. I followed them, and they supported me. I was given a job at a poultry farm, but I was later accused of stealing. Out of frustration, I left the church premises and returned to the streets.”

Back on the streets and surviving through petty theft, Aderayo said he was often overwhelmed by despair whenever the effects of the drugs wore off.

He recalled that one day, while under the influence of drugs, a woman approached him, gave him food, took him to a hospital, and helped him undergo rehabilitation.

“I told the leaders of the church I now attend that I wanted to return to school, and they enrolled me again. I am now in SS2 and the class captain,” the 18-year-old told Saturday PidomNigeria.

Like Aderayo, Ismail Habeeb grew up in a troubled family where his parents constantly fought. As a result, he was sent to live with a Muslim cleric.

According to him, the harsh punishments he endured while living with the cleric pushed him into stealing.

“I was sent on an errand one day, and I used the money to go and smoke. I became addicted to ‘Loud’ and Colorado and started living on the streets of Lakowe along the Lekki-Epe Expressway. We usually fled from the task force officials. I was initiated into cultism while living on the streets.

“There was a school around the golf course where we went to fight using axes. I regret the evil I committed. One day, while my friends and I were under the Ajah Bridge, an NGO came to the area and took me for rehabilitation. That was how I was rescued,” Habeeb recalled.

Combined effort required

Commenting on the factors contributing to street thuggery, the Principal Counsellor at U & I Klinique, Babatunde Oladipupo, identified negative peer influence and drug and substance abuse as some of the major causes.

He added that poor parental supervision, economic hardship, unemployment, the search for identity and recognition, social media, popular culture, and a weak moral and spiritual foundation also contribute to the area boys’ menace.

“A good family is the pride of every nation. In Africa, especially, children are traditionally raised with strong values of respect, responsibility, hard work, and communal living. Every family member is expected to protect the family’s reputation because an individual’s conduct reflects on the entire household.

“Despite this, we still find some young men from seemingly responsible homes becoming involved in street violence, cultism, drug abuse, truancy, and other social vices.

“Families must return to intentional parenting by rebuilding strong family values, spending quality time together, teaching discipline with love, and reinforcing moral and spiritual principles,” Babatunde advised.

He further urged youths to become actively involved in sports, vocational training, mentoring programmes, community service, entrepreneurship, and faith-based activities that would give them a sense of purpose.

“Schools, religious institutions, community leaders, counsellors, government agencies, and the media should collaborate to educate young people on the dangers of drug abuse, violence, cultism, and other antisocial behaviours while promoting positive role models.

“Those already involved should not simply be condemned. They need professional counselling, addiction treatment where necessary, psychological support, mentorship, and opportunities to rebuild their lives through education and skills acquisition.

“The government should create employment opportunities, strengthen youth empowerment programmes, improve recreational facilities, and ensure effective law enforcement, while communities provide support systems that encourage positive behaviour,” Babatunde added.

In an interview with Saturday PidomNigeria, psychologist Dayo Courson noted that greater attention needs to be paid to the mindset of many boys who have been neglected.

“There are some homes where too many moral boundaries are placed on girls, but boys are not subjected to the same expectations. There are boys who grow up without proper discipline or positive models of masculinity.

“Their ideas and understanding of masculinity are shaped by what they see in their communities and in movies. Such boys need proper mentorship, moral support, and rescue from destructive habits that may later alter their minds,” Courson said.