The
so-called same-sex marriage ceremony, which took place at the popular
King’s Land Hotel in the capital, is prohibited under Nigerian law.
The
spokesman for the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Police Command,
Anjuguri Manzah, said the police acted “based on the provisions of the
Same-Sex Prohibition Act” which many in this highly religious country
have embraced, but which has been widely criticized by LGBT activists
here and abroad.
The much scrutinized legislation (PDF)
signed into law in 2014 outlaws sodomy and provides penalties of up to
14 years in jail for a gay marriage. It also prohibits the promotion of
civil unions.
When
it was approved by then-President Goodluck Jonathan, the United States,
Britain, and Canada condemned the new law, with Secretary of State John
Kerry saying that it “dangerously restricts” freedom of expression and association of all Nigerians.
Jonathan’s
successor, Muhammadu Buhari, has stood firm in support of the anti-gay
law, despite pressure for its repeal, particularly from the United
States. Under his administration, gay people will be arrested and
prosecuted based on the law.
Incidents
like the arrest of Lawal and Tahir and their guests in a supposed
marriage ceremony are rare, but not unprecedented, particularly in
northern Nigeria. Similar arrests have taken place in Bauchi and Kano,
where witnesses say suspects were often tortured in detention and forced
to give names of other gay people they know to the police.
“That
is what they did to some of our friends in Bauchi after they were
arrested,” an unmarried gay man we’ll call Mana, who lives in Jiwa
community, told The Daily Beast. “They tortured them into naming people
they had come in contact with, including friends who weren’t gay.”
Mana,
who used to live in Bauchi, said his name was mentioned during
interrogation, but he had left town by the time police came to arrest
him in 2014.
“I
got information that policemen were arresting gay people and so I
quickly fled,” he said. “Those who were unfortunately arrested said they
were tortured and forced to give names and phone numbers of their close
friends to the police.”
Nigerian
law enforcement agents are notorious for torturing suspects to extract
confessions, and a number of officials have been accused of intimidating
suspects until they implicate innocent friends and associates. One
motive: to make money off of bail after they round people up.
Although
news of the Jiwa arrests spread like wildfire across the country and
the action of security officers in apprehending the actors was commended
by a number of citizens and religious organizations, human-rights
activists rejected claims by the police that a gay marriage ceremony had
taken place anywhere in Abuja. They say that security officials carried
out arrests in a local celebration that was not a same-sex wedding at
all.
Rights
worker John Adeniyi, who has been following the case closely, told The
Daily Beast that the ceremony where Lawal and Tahir were arrested was
actually a traditional fund-raising ceremony—known in the local Hausa
language as Ajo—where some participants “socially cross-dress for the
purpose of entertainment.”
“At
one point in time when a traditional music was playing and people were
performing the cultural dance, police stormed the event premises and
caught one of the cross-dressed participants dancing in a close range to
one other person who cross-dressed alongside several other persons,”
said Adeniyi, who works with the Global Initiatives for Human Rights
(GIHR), a small, specialized unit within Heartland Alliance that
supports the protection and promotion of human rights, regardless of
sexual orientation, gender identity, and/or gender expression.
“The
two persons presumed to be a couple were two individuals spotted
dancing in a close proximity at the cultural dance performance although
one of them was cross-dressed, which was the factor that made the police
come to the conclusion without an adequate investigation,” Adeniyi
added.
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