Nigeria Police detain 67 people accused of being gay

“We stopped 67 people suspected of being gay “At a hotel in Ekpan city where two people are celebrating their wedding ceremony,” state police spokesman Bright Edafe told EFE by phone.

“We entered the hotel after one of them. A transvestite claiming to be an actressHe was caught on the way to the ceremony,” Edafe explained.

According to the spokesperson, “after a detailed questioning, admitted to being a part of the gay club‘ and led the agents to the location of the alleged connection between the two men.

Edafe said of one of the attendees: admitted to having anal sex He stressed that during the celebration, police found bottles of alcohol and other drugs, such as marijuana, in the area.

“Gay marriage and homosexuality are illegal in Nigeria. They are not allowed because they are foreign and unnatural to our culture.‘ said the police spokesperson.

Detainees were forced to pose in public at the city police station on Tuesday; this was a practice that exposed people from the LGBTI community (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Intersex) are exposed to violence and discrimination in society by revealing their identities.

Homosexuality is prosecuted and considered a felony in Nigeria. Up to 14 years in prison, In the north of the country, in some areas where sharia (Islamic law) is practiced, stoning can mean the death penalty, but in practice prisoners are flogged.

On the other hand, same-sex marriage It has been expressly banned in the country since 2014.

One of the most serious cases against this group in Nigeria in recent years is the The trial of 47 people arrested at the party in 2018but the case was finally dismissed in 2020.

from those close 70 countries that criminalize same-sex relationships There are more than thirty in the world in Africa, where the majority of such laws are inherited from the colonial era and reinforced by other later norms.