Nigerian police recently raided an illegal same-sex wedding in Warri, Delta state, arresting 67 people. It’s one of the largest recent crackdowns on the LGBTQ community in the country.
On Tuesday, police in Nigeria’s southern Delta State arrested several dozen people accused of violating the country’s anti-gay law by allegedly participating in a gay wedding. The police publicly paraded the suspects before the media, interrogating them about the accusations, assaulting their dignity and rights to privacy, association, and a fair trial, among others.
In a media statement on August 29, the Delta State commissioner of police, Wale Abbas, said 67 men and women were arrested at a hotel in Warri for conducting and attending the purported gay wedding, which is prohibited under Nigeria’s Same Sex Marriage Prohibition Act.
The police shamelessly livestreamed the media spectacle on their official Delta State police Facebook page.
In 2022, Nigeria’s Federal High Court found that pretrial media parades violate the country’s constitution and the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, which guarantee respect for the dignity of the person and the right to a fair trial, including the presumption of innocence.
Despite this ruling, police have continued the abusive practice with total impunity.
Nigeria’s Same Sex Marriage Prohibition Act, enacted in 2014, criminalizes same-sex marriage and public displays of same-sex relationships with prison sentences of up to 14 and 10 years respectively. It also punishes establishing, supporting, and participating in gay organizations with up to 10 years in prison.
“A witch-hunt”
Amnesty International Nigeria condemned the situation as “a witch-hunt.” It called on Delta state police to release the detained people, who were “arrested and paraded to the media” and to “put an immediate end to this witch-hunt,” in a statement on X, formerly known as Twitter.
“In a society where corruption is rampant, the law banning same sex relationships is increasingly being used for harassment, extortion and blackmail of people by law enforcement officers and other members of the public. This is unacceptable,” the human rights group added.
Sources: CNN, Reuters