"You can't vape in here. Take it outside."

She scowled as she tucked the vape under her blouse. "I wasn't vaping."

"Yes, you were," I replied.

"No I wasn't."

"I saw you."

"You didn't. I was not vaping."

She looked at me defiantly. She was seated with three other girls. All of them were probably no more than 13 years old, and they all were vaping. The others were a lil discreet as they vaped, but she wasn't, and she knew my bark had no bite.

I held her stare for a moment, then I turned and continued my patrol around the bus station. Some minutes later I walked back to take my position at one of the entrances to the bus station.

A week earlier I had seen this shift and booked it. It was a seven-hour shift in a bus station just outside the Manchester city centre. Easy peasy, I thought, what could possibly go wrong?

Well, my friend would always say, "there's nothing free in Freetown," which in this context means, "there is no easy shift."

Bitus, my colleague for the day, inclined his head in the direction of three young boys that just walked. "You see those kids, they're part of the gang of kids that I told you about, the ones that come here to create chaos."

The three boys looked ten years old or younger.

Bitus had told me that a few weeks earlier, about 20 kids, both male and female, had stormed the bus station. They played loud music, danced, vaped, kissed, smooched, and drove their bicycles in and out of the station.

They would sometimes damage chairs and other things in the station. Theft was also a big issue, especially in the kiosk in the station.

The kids would also (with invalid tickets), enter into some of the buses that came to the station, and return some minutes later on another bus.

There was just two SIA personnel on ground then and they were not able to handle the situation. Besides, they really could not do much, as the law does not permit them to touch, grab or hold children under 18. So most times, the SIA personnel would only caution them, and try to shepherd them out of the station, or prevent them from coming in.

This continued almost on a daily basis, and the kids were such a big nuisance to everyone working in, or transiting through the station, that the staff of the bus station called the police on several occasions.

However, the police would only take the children back to their homes, nothing more. And the kids always returned to the bus station the next day.

"I spoke to one of them, an eight-year-old girl that I saw vaping. I asked her why she doesn't stay home and watch TV," said Bitus, "she told me she didn't like movies and her parents were always quarreling."

"Wow, eight years old and already vaping?"

He smiled wistfully. "She started vaping at age six."

The issues with the kids led the bus station staff to request more SIA personnel, from two to six. And fortunately, schools had resumed so it was expected the gang won't show up in full force.

But my hope for a stress-free day evaporated with the three young boys that just arrived.

"Hey mate," a bus driver called out to us, "can you watch the bus for me? I want to use the toilet."

The three boys rushed there trying to get on the bus. The bus driver watched them warily, and decided it was safer to take his bag and purse along with him. Then he closed the door of the bus before he got off, but one of the kids opened it from outside using the emergency button. I stepped between the kids and the bus door and used my hand to block the emergency button. The kids stayed there, trash talking with themselves, and spitting on the floor.

The bus driver soon returned and the kids wandered off to another part of the station. They vaped intermittently and spat on the floor. Soon afterwards, they started kicking the wet floor caution board.

Bitus and I approached them, and they ran out of the station, and came in through another door. The other SIA personnel closer to them tried to shepherd them out of the station.

I did another patrol around the station and saw another two boys vaping in a secluded part of the station. They saw me before I saw them, so by the time I got to them, the vapes were out of sight.

"No vaping in the station guys."

"We're not vaping," one of the replied.

I moved on, turned the corner and approached the two boys from behind. They had resumed vaping and didn't see me until I stopped beside them.

"Guys, you can't vape in here," I said loudly.

They put the vape in their pocket and leaned on the wall.

I turned to the one on my left, "how old are you?"

"Fifteen," he said.

I turned to the other one. "How old are you?"

He frowned. "Why do you want to know my age?"

"Just asking."

He looked at me. "Well, it's none of your business."

We stared at each other for a moment. Then he looked away, dipped his right hand into his coat, and casually brought out a six-inch knife. He traced the blade with his finger and returned it into his coat.

"You're not supposed to bring that in here. You need to leave." I said.

He glanced at me and smiled. "I'm a chef. And a good one at that."

Then he inclined his head to the other boy and they both walked out of the station.

I remembered Bitus mentioned that his wife who worked at the hospital, had said there were two things growing at an alarming rate among kids aged 16 and below.

Abortion and knife attacks.

Signed
Olumide Holloway (King Olulu)