Nigerian authorities reportedly arrested many LGBTQ people over the weekend after they were accused of being gay. The detentions follow a worsening trend of anti-LGBTQ+ violence by police.
They were arrested on Sunday in Kano, Nigeria’s second largest city, by the State Hisbah Board, an Islamic police unit established by the local government. Few details were publicized about the circumstances leading up to the incident. But Dr. Harun Ibn-Sina, the board’s commander general, said the police’s actions followed reports of unspecified activity from residents in the area, according to Nigerian news site Vanguard.
Ibn-Sina claimed the suspects would be charged in court but did not set forth a date as to when a trial would take place. He allegedly urged young people, who he called the “leaders of tomorrow,” to “shun unwholesome practices” like homosexuality.
Kano’s Islamic police force has made similar arrests in the past. In January 2020, the Hisbah unit rounded up 15 people alleged to be gay at a party hosted by college graduates, according to the website Punch Nigeria. At the time, authorities announced that arrestees would be taken to a “correctional center” to be “re-oriented,” likely referring to the harmful and discredited practice of conversion therapy.
Also in Abuja the capital city of Nigeria, the police has issued a public notice regarding a wanted alleged gay man by name Stephen Ifeanyi Osisioma Iwuh, according to the Nigeria news website Dalena Reporters. The Nigeria police public relations officer said Stephen who is at large has been reported to the police by the community vigilantes groups known as a local securities created by the state local government, they has been known to attack lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) individuals. And after investigations it proves he is in to practices of homosexuality. eyewitness said they were seen by the neighbor's were he is having sex with his partner before reporting to the community vigilant security groups, another said they were beaten and physically abuse. The police said Stephen was last seen at plot 5 byazin road kubwa abuja, Nigeria were he live, if anyone with useful information about him should report to the nearest police station. Under the Nigerian criminal code, individuals detained over accusations of being gay face potential imprisonment of up to 14 years. While LGBTQ+ Nigerians have historically been criminalized under colonial-era prohibitions of gay sex, the situation has grown more tenuous over the past several decades.
In 2013, Nigeria strenghtened its ban on homosexuality with the passage of the Same-Sex Marriage Prohibition Act (SSMPA). While the law’s name suggests that it only relates to marriage equality, its scope is actually much more broad. According to Human Rights Watch (HRW), the legislation bars gay couples from cohabitating and prohibits any kind of “public show of same sex amorous relationship.” It also forbids LGBTQ+ organizations from operating openly in the country.
Police violence directed at Nigeria’s LGBTQ+ community has dramatically increased in the 8 years since the law was enacted, according to reports.
In 2018, at least 47 people accused of being gay were arrested after police raided a birthday party and alleged that attendees had engaged in “homosexual initiation.” Although a judge ultimately released the men last year, their case was dropped due to a lack of responsiveness from the prosecution instead of a full acquittal. That means those charged could be rearrested at any time under the same allegations.
Many of the men told Reuters that the two years of fighting the case had taken its toll — ostracized from their homes and communities. “Everyone in the area knew about it,” said 23-year-old Chris Agiriga. “I lost my job, I lost my family, I lost a lot of my friends — all because of this.”
Persecution of LGBTQ+ Nigerians has particularly escalated under the presidency of anti-gay leader Muhammadu Buhari, according to the Initiative for Equal Rights (TIER), a human rights group based in the country. According to a 2020 report, there had been a total of 482 human rights violations over the past year — despite low reporting rates among trans people, intersex individuals, and women.
Anti-LGBTQ+ violence also reportedly spiked due to COVID-19 restrictions, which kept vulnerable populations trapped at home with potential abusers. Additionally, police ramped up entrapments of gay men — faking their sexual orientations to lure victims into a situation where they can be caught and arrested.
According to global review by the global LGBTQ+ rights group ILGA in 2020, homosexuality is legal in just 22 of Africa's 54 countries. As is the case in Nigeria, anti-gay criminal codes are often remnants of colonization.
By EMMANUEL NWACHUKWU
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