By Evelyn Usman
The sight of these teenagers at Iyana-Ejigbo     Bus-stop, begging, left concerned passers-by and motorists wondering whether all was well with them. At first, some thought one of them could be physically-challenged, while the other was helping out. But  this assumption  turned out wrong, as they were discovered to be perfectly alright.

Rilwan(left) and Habeeb

The teenagers were first sighted about 6.30pm that Monday. Unfortunately for them, their appeals for  help met with cold stares from passers-by who  thereafter ignored them. But one of the inquisitive passers-by, a woman, took time to find out what  was amiss. To her astonishment, the teenagers informed that they were driven away from home by their father. Their offence? Simply because they visited their mother and over-stayed their visit. Their parents reportedly parted ways in 2001, leaving them with their father, who has since remarried.

Out of pity, the curious woman who refused to mention her name, decided to call the police. But before the arrival of policemen, other passers-by, some of whom earlier ignored the children, had gathered to hear their story.

Their Story
The older of the two who gave his name as Rilawan Awolumate, a Senior Secondary School 2 student of a private school in Ejigbo area, narrated thus: “My brother and I(pointing to his 11-year-old younger brother, Habeeb) went to see our mother in Oshodi, when we closed for the term. We spent only  one week and were preparing to return to Daddy when it was announced that the resumption date had been postponed because of the registration exercise. So we remained with Mummy until we came back on Sunday to resume school on Monday”.

Their visit to their mother’s turned out to be their greatest undoing, following an unwelcome reception by their father on their return to their Alafia avenue home along Power line, Ejigbo.  The teenagers said the  cherished experience of their mother’s pampering stopped the moment their father, a clearing and forwarding agent, arrived.

Continuing, Rilwan said: “When we got home, Daddy did not talk to us when we greeted him. He just told us to return to our Mummy and start living with her. The next day, he refused to give us our feeding money and left the house with a directive that we must go back to our mother”. Asked if he usually gave them feeding money before then, he responded: “Before now, he used to give us N70 every morning. We will use it to eat at school and when we come back we would eat at night. Anytime we eat in the morning, he would give us N50 to eat in the afternoon”.

To make real his threat, Rilwan said the next day being Monday, while they were looking forward to resuming: “Our Daddy did not even make mention of our resumption. Rather, he insisted that we should meet our Mummy to re-instate us back to school. He said he would not pay our school fees anymore.

“When we waited till 4pm and there was no food, we decided to inform our grandmother who has been taking care of us since our mother left. We begged her to give us money so that we could at least return to Mummy. That was when she gave us N200. But we told her it would not be enough and she added N300, saying that was all she had. Because we were very hungry, we had to eat first and what we were left with could not take us to our mother’s.

Resort to begging
“At that point, we decided to go and beg, at least to make up for the transport to our Mummy’s place. But everyone we met at the bus-stop did not pay attention to us , until this woman came. But rather than help us, she said she would take us to the police station”.

At this point, most of the women started raining curses at the unidentified father. One of them who simply gave her name as Mrs Dosumu said: “It is not his fault. I guess it did not cost him any trouble having a child. Or what would you say of a father that would not bother to look for his children at this time of the night. This can lead a child into joining bad gang”.

After much speculation on whether to take the children to their parents or take them to the police, the woman who earlier sought to find out the reason for their begging, insisted on taking them to the police station. She was then accompanied by other angry mothers to Ejigbo police station. Time was about 9pm.