Delta
Police raid homosexuals wedding, arrest 100 in Delta
The Nigeria Police have raided a hotel in Ekpan town, Delta State, arresting more than 100 “gay suspects” at inauspicious wedding party.
Nigerian laws forbid same sex marriage, including homosexuality and lesbianism laws.
At least sixty-seven people were detained by the police, two of them got married at the event, Delta State Command spokesman Bright Edafe told a press conference.
He said homosexuality would “never be tolerated” in Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country with some 230 million inhabitants.
According to the police spokesman, “we saw two suspects, and there is a video recording where they were performing their wedding ceremony.
“We are in Africa and we are in Nigeria. We cannot copy the Western world because we don’t have the same culture.”
He reiterated that police officers in Nigeria “cannot fold their hands” and watch gay people openly express their orientation in the country.
“This is not something that will be allowed in Nigeria,” he said, adding that the suspects will be charged in court at the end of the investigation.
Arrests of gay people are common in the West African country, where the Same Sex Marriage Prohibition Act prohibits same sex relationships.
The law means that anyone belonging to a gay organisation can get up to 10 years in jail, and anyone married to someone of the same sex can get up to 14 years.
The law, enacted by then President Goodluck Jonathan in 2013, has been condemned by several Western countries.
Then US secretary of state John Kerry said it “dangerously restricts freedom” of expression and association of all Nigerians.
Britain and Canada also criticised the law, which was introduced with little announcement or fanfare
The UK Foreign Office said the law “infringes upon fundamental rights of expression and association”.
Immediately after the act was introduced reports emerged of police hunting down and torturing gay people.
Campaigners also alleged that gay men were tortured into naming dozens of others to be arrested.
Jonathan, who was ousted from office in Nigeria’s 2015 election, never publicly expressed his views on homosexuality.
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