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Tag: gay wedding

  • Nigeria: Authorities arrest 76 individuals for arranging a same-sex wedding

    Nigeria: Authorities arrest 76 individuals for arranging a same-sex wedding

    Over 70 young individuals were detained by security forces in northeastern Nigeria on Saturday, accused of arranging a same-sex wedding in a country where such unions are illegal, and violence against the LGBT+ community is pervasive.

    Same-sex marriage is prohibited in Nigeria, subject to a 2014 law that imposes a 14-year prison sentence for violations.

    Buhari Saad, the spokesperson for the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) in Gombe State, a government-affiliated paramilitary organization, stated, “We apprehended 76 suspected homosexuals at a birthday party organized by one of them who was due to marry his fiancé at the event.”

    The detained group includes 59 men and 17 women.

    Legal representation for those arrested was not immediately available for comment or confirmation.

    Intimidation of the LGBT+ community is widespread in Nigeria, and security forces have conducted numerous raids on gatherings they suspect involve same-sex weddings in recent years. However, none of those arrested have been convicted.

    In August, police arrested over a hundred men in a similar situation in southeastern Nigeria.

    Amnesty International, a human rights organization, has called for an end to what it terms a “witch-hunt.”

    “In a society where corruption is endemic, the law prohibiting same-sex relationships is increasingly being used for harassment, extortion and blackmail by law enforcement officials and other members of the public”, it also condemned.


    In December, the Islamic police, known as Hisbah, arrested 19 men and women in their twenties in Kano, the largest city in northern Nigeria, on allegations of arranging a same-sex wedding. The suspects were detained briefly and subsequently released without facing legal proceedings.

    Gombe State, where the recent arrests occurred, is among the northern states with a Muslim-majority population where Islamic Sharia law is applied in conjunction with federal and state legal systems.

    Under Sharia law, homosexual relationships are subject to the death penalty, although this punishment has never been implemented in northern Nigeria.

    The NSCDC spokesperson did not clarify whether the individuals detained on Saturday would be prosecuted under Sharia law or the regular legal system.

  • Nigeria: Gay wedding raided by Islamic police in Kano city

    19 Muslims were detained by the Islamic police force in the largest city in northern Nigeria on suspicion of attending a same-sex marriage.

    According to the force’s spokesman Lawal Ibrahim Fagge, a tip-off led to the raid on the wedding in Kano.

    He added that the couple, who had not yet exchanged vows, had managed to escape and that police were looking for them.

    With a predominance of Muslims, Kano has both a secular legal system and an Islamic one.

    In Nigeria as a whole, where residents of the north are predominately Muslims and those of the south are predominately Christians, homosexual acts are prohibited by both legal systems.

    Kano’s Islamic police force is popularly known as the Hisbah and enforces a strict moral code.

    Mr Fagge told the BBC that the police force did not intend to punish the 15 male and four female wedding guests arrested during the raid on Sunday.

    Instead, the group – which he said included gay people and cross-dressers – was undergoing “counselling”, and their parents or guardians had been urged to come forward.

    “We’ll explore the avenue of change before we charge them in court. First we counsel them, and involve the parents and we hope they change their lifestyle,” the Hisbah spokesman said.

    Kano’s Islamic courts have never convicted anyone for being gay.

    Mr Fagge said that 18 people who attended a similar wedding ceremony last year had been released after signing a document that gave an “undertaking that they would change their lifestyle”.

    Rights groups in Nigeria have long campaigned for gay rights to be respected, but there is strong opposition to it in a country where many Muslims and Christians uphold conservative religious values.