A police raid, viral vios and the broken liv of Nigerian gay law spects | Rters

Contents:

• BISI ALIMI REVEALS HOW GAY MAN WAS MURRED IN HIS SLEEP
• A POLICE RAID, VIRAL VIOS AND THE BROKEN LIV OF NIGERIAN GAY LAW SPECTS
• THE NIGERIANS LURED TO A TRAP AND BLACKMAILED FOR BEG GAY
• OPN: NIGERIA IS A LD-BLOOD UNTRY FOR GAY MEN – I HAVE THE SRS TO PROVE
• SPECTED GAY PE LYNCHG LAGOS
• JUDGE DISMISS CASE AGAST 47 MEN CHARGED UNR NIGERIA’S ANTI-GAY LAW
• 'I DIDN'T WANT MY MUM TO KNOW': THE MEN AND BOYS ARRTED FOR BEG GAY NIGERIA
• PHOTOS: LIV OF NIGERIAN GAY SPECTS AFTER POLICE RAID AND VIRAL VIO
• GAY MAN FATALLY SHOT AND KILLED UNPROVOKED BTAL ATTACK
• OPENLY GAY NIGERIAN PASTOR,REACTS TO MURR OF GAY MAN LAGOS
• "MY HEART IS BROKEN" - OPENLY GAY NIGERIAN PASTOR, JI MAULAY REACTS TO ALLEGED MURR OF GAY MAN LAGOS
• GAY IN NIGERIA: LGBT LIFE IN ONE OF THE WORLD’S MOST HOMOPHOBIC NATNS

BISI ALIMI REVEALS HOW GAY MAN WAS MURRED IN HIS SLEEP

Bisi Alimi, a homosexual rights activist, claims that a gay man was murred Lagos on Monday, Febary, who intified the ad as Dave, claimed he was killed after allowg a man “he tsted” to spend the night his bed, arms, tst, and wrote; Last night, a young gay man was killed Lagos. His name was MORE: There’s Nothg Spirual About Love-makg- Bisi AlimiHe was killed bee he allowed a man he tsted spent the night his bed, his arms, his tst, his year, young gay men Nigeria bee a victim of very simple thgs of life; seekg love and, I beg you today and always, Say his name, post below:. Episo Summary In the early days of July 2021, A 19 years old gay boy named John after meetg a supposed gay man onle was kidnapped Igando, Lagos.

Standg behd a bank of microphon, the Lagos state police missner, Imohimi Edgal, told the gathered journalists that he personally had orred the raid that swept up the men after the thori received a tipoff that young men were beg iated to a “homosexual club. That law, which drew ternatnal nmnatn when me to force 2014, targets not only same-sex unns but homosexual relatns general wh prison terms of up to 14 years. In this rolutely Christian and Mlim untry, homosexualy is broadly rejected across society, as sual as a snub on the street and as ser as Sharia law that threatens ath by of the men is a married father of four who says he had driven people to the party to earn extra money.

His former manager cled to rpond to text msag and phone lls om a 42-year-old, who sists he is not gay, was unable to fd work for a year after his arrt. But crimals sometim e the secret renzvo to rry out attacks known lolly as “ko, ” which a gay person arriv to meet a person for the first time only to be kidnapped, beaten and sometim raped, said rights mpaigners and two people who told Rters they had been victims of such MAN WHO BROUGHT SHAMEWhen he was a child, Chris Agiriga said, his nt gave him a home after his mother left Lagos to pursue a new life.

A POLICE RAID, VIRAL VIOS AND THE BROKEN LIV OF NIGERIAN GAY LAW SPECTS

“I’m always sred, ” the dimutive 25-year-old said, reuntg an attack that took place last year which a group of men lled him out as the “gay guy who was arrted” and stole his phone, money and the arrt, he said, was the police who ma him fearful. “My pany said they didn’t want to hear about a gay issue, and that if I ntue workg wh them would be a threat to the pany, ” he said. Image ptn, Displays of same-sex affectn are illegal NigeriaMore than 40 men have been arrted Nigeria over the weekend for performg homosexual acts, police are due to appear urt later.

THE NIGERIANS LURED TO A TRAP AND BLACKMAILED FOR BEG GAY

Homosexual acts are punishable by up to 14 years jail Nigeria, while gay marriage and displays of same-sex affectn are also event that was raid was to raise awarens about HIV ttg the gay muny Lagos, activist for gay rights Nigeria Bisi Alimi told the BBC. Livg fearChris Ewokor, BBC Ai, AbujaNigeria has an fluential Christian evangelil movement the south and strong support for Islamic law the north, both of which oppose Nigeria passed a law crimalisg same sex marriage and gay anisatns 2013, law enforcement agents have cracked down on people spected of homosexualy. Northern stat unr Sharia - Islamic relig law - have the ath penalty for people nvicted of same-sex offenc which other stat rry a 14-year jail is not the first arrt for engagg acts of homosexualy but so far prosecutns have never end relatns are explicly banned 72 untri, acrdg to the Internatnal Lbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Associatn (ILGA) number of stat that crimalise same-sex relatns is creasg annually, though, wh Belize and the Seychell repealg such laws last year.

Nigeria is one of a small number of untri which has gone agast a global untry has had a ban on gay relatnships sce 1901, and 2013 also outlawed same-sex marriag, gay groups and shows of same-sex public on this story. Image ptn, Mohammed agreed to speak to the BBC on ndn of anonymyWhen Nigeria passed some of the tought anti-homosexualy laws Ai, the ter beme a place for the LGBT muny to nnect wh others more safely - until crimal gangs went digal too.

OPN: NIGERIA IS A LD-BLOOD UNTRY FOR GAY MEN – I HAVE THE SRS TO PROVE

Acrdg to a group of activists who work wh the LGBT muny Nigeria, around 15 to 20 people ntact them each week wh siar stori to type of blackmail, where an LGBT person is entrapped, is known Nigeria's gay muny as "ko" - the exact orig of the term is unclear. Image ptn, There is an unrground gay scene Lagos, but those who take part have to be very refulEmmanuel, not his real name, scribed how he started chattg to a iend onle, but had not realised his iend's acunt had been hijacked.

It banned gay clubs, troducg a 10-year prison sentence for anyone who registers, operat, or participat gay clubs, societi, and anisatns, cludg supporters of those groups. In 2014, media reports of vlence, mob jtice and extortn agast LGBT people were mon and activists say there has sce been an explosn ko s sce ptn, Uyai Ikpe-Etim says some people celebrate the targetg of LGBT peopleFilmmaker Uyai Ikpe-Etim, who liv openly as a gay woman Nigeria, said blackmail agast LGBT people is "rampant". I wanted to start meangful nversatns around genr norms and masculy that speak specifilly to our reali as gay men wh a culture that is poisonoly patriarchal and eply homophobic.

Agast a backdrop of adly anti-gay vlence, A Nasty Boy dared to be a haven for gay men Nigeria and, no time, received ternatnal attentn through CNN, BBC, The Guardian, The Enomist, Vogue, and others. And yet, even this gome attack pal parison to the fatal btaly many Nigerian gay men have too often experienced the form of lynchgs or pillory wh tir before they’re set on fire and burnt alive—not for terrorism or worse, but for beg gay, for beg human, a sperately homophobic untry.

SPECTED GAY PE LYNCHG LAGOS

A 2017 survey by The Iniative for Equal Rights (TIERS), a Nigerian-based human rights anizatn, showed 90% of Nigerians support the ntued enforcement of Nigeria’s anti-gay laws. Homophobia is the tie that bds a divid untry; the one thg a natn of chronic ethnic loyalti, of relig tensn, of failed ernment, n agree upon.

In universy, I beme a social pariah and the poster child for “faggots” after beg outed by my bt iend on a mp that waged a ‘War on Homosexualy. A judge a Nigerian urt has thrown out a se agast 47 men charged wh public displays of affectn wh members of the same sex, endg what had wily been seen as a tt of the untry’s laws banng homosexual relatnships. The Nigerian law banng gay marriage, punishable by up to 14 years prison, and same-sex “amoro relatnships”, prompted an ternatnal outcry when me to force unr former Print Goodluck Jonathan 2014.

Ai|Judge Dismiss Case Agast 47 Men Charged Unr Nigeria’s Anti-Gay Law ADVERTISEMENTThe judge said prosecutors failed to appear urt or ll wns the trial, regard as a tt se of the dranian law enacted nearly seven years ago Ai’s most populo Alaja/RtersLAGOS, Nigeria — A Nigerian urt on Tuday threw out a se agast 47 men charged wh public displays of affectn wh members of same sex bee of what the judge lled the failure of prosecutors to appear urt and ll trial, heard Lagos, Nigeria’s biggt cy and mercial pal, was wily seen as a tt se for a law troduced 2014 that bans same-sex “amoro relatnships.

JUDGE DISMISS CASE AGAST 47 MEN CHARGED UNR NIGERIA’S ANTI-GAY LAW

”The Nigerian law banng gay marriage, punishable by a 14-year prison term, and same-sex “amoro relatnships, ” stoked an ternatnal outcry when me to force unr Goodluck Jonathan, Nigeria’s former print, the urt’s judgment, prosecutn and fense lawyers the se told Rters that nobody had yet been nvicted unr the law.

For 23-year-old Femi*, a night out celebratg a birthday wh iends end wh a month and two days jail bee of his late July, Femi and his iends were among 40 gay men and boys, some as young as 13, who were arrted at a gay nightspot a hotel the back blocks of Nigeria's enomic pal, were charged wh engagg "gay activi" by allowg other men "to have rnal knowledge of themselv agast the orr of nature" his arrt, Femi has been kicked out of home and now shuttl between iends' loung and lovers' beds.

Before urt the men were dragged out ont of lol media(ABC News: Declan Cooley)He wanted me to 'die jail'Femi says he "beme gay" at 14 when he fell love wh the man who raped him, an olr man who was close iends wh his father. He kept the relatnship a secret until his father acced him of beg "gay and actg girly" a untry like Nigeria where 91 per cent of people believe homosexualy should be crimalised, his nfsn only led to more equent and feroc beatgs om his father. Eternal damnatn or prisonGay sex has been outlawed Nigeria sce the time of Brish le but recently the suatn has bee more dire for Nigeria's LGBTI 2014 former print Goodluck Jonathan signed a bill which proscribed penalti of 14 years' jail for same-sex marriage and 10 years' for same-sex "amoro relatnships".

'I DIDN'T WANT MY MUM TO KNOW': THE MEN AND BOYS ARRTED FOR BEG GAY NIGERIA

In the untry's Mlim north, 12 stat have adopted Sharia, wh punishment for gay sex cludg lashgs, jail and ath by far no-one has been sentenced to ath and nvictns are rare. Days after the hotel arrts, the Lagos State Attorney-General Aniji Kazeem said the tough stance taken wh the men was to help put "a stop to the exploatn of unr-aged children" by gay Doy*, 15, says no sex wh mors took was jail for seven days before he was released, but unlike many, he wasn't fazed by the nsequenc.

Everythg has a priceNigeria is an credibly divid untry but Lagos activist Peter Kass says hostily towards gay people was one issue that cut across regn and NGO — Accs to Health and Rights Development Iniative — was at the hotel nductg HIV tts for some of the patrons on the night of the arrts. "About 70 people were arrted that night, but acrdg to Ak about 30 men were able to pay between $18 and $36 for police to let them Alimi was the first gay man Nigeria to e out on natnal televisn, later seekg asylum England. (ABC News: Declan Cooley)Anti-gay vigilant and t-fishers The suatn for LGBTI people northern Nigeria is more difficult than for those livg the south, wh at least 114 gay men and women havg been arrted sce January this year.

"In Augt, she says, a 17-year-old schoolboy was allegedly beaten to ath by some of his classmat Jigawa state bee they spected he was gay. "The [classmat] were taken to police ctody but their statements they said they did to rrect [the stunt who died] om the social vice bee he was spected to be gay.

PHOTOS: LIV OF NIGERIAN GAY SPECTS AFTER POLICE RAID AND VIRAL VIO

"When you get there you disver the person isn't even gay and there are six or seven men there … who are jt out there to beat up gay men. "'I'm gog to be killed'The stggle faced by gay Nigerian women is often *, 39, says was no "exce" that bee gay men make up the majory of those arrted and abed that "lbian and bisexual rights vlatns" should be says she knew she was attracted to women when she was 15 but "me to terms that lovg Nigeria was gog to be tough bee of relig and cultural fluenc" please her parents she married a man four years ago but after her father died she says her ex-hband vowed to teach her "a lson [she] would never fet" and last month me to her hoe wh two policemen, where she was ught bed wh her says the police slapped and kicked her and forced her to sleep on the floor of the police statn for four days before a iend negotiated her release for $ her ex-hband didn't stop there.

“I knew that the untry wasn’t progrsive and homophobia was rife but I don’t know why I assumed that the gay datg apps, our apps you know, at least would be safe. Walter U, the admistrator behd Ko Diari, told the onle news se Ain Arguments a 2019 terview that he created the platform to help queer people who ‘‘are not assisted by law enforcement this battle to survive targeted anti-gay crim”.

GAY MAN FATALLY SHOT AND KILLED UNPROVOKED BTAL ATTACK

That law, which drew ternatnal nmnatn when me to force 2014, targets not only same-sex unns but homosexual relatns general wh prison terms of up to 14 a landmark se that may reach s rolutn soon, the men face 10 years prison if found guilty unr the 2014 law, which has never been ed to secure a nvictn.

OPENLY GAY NIGERIAN PASTOR,REACTS TO MURR OF GAY MAN LAGOS

Durg the raids, Lagos state police missner Imohimi Edgal, told the gathered journalists that he personally had orred the raid that swept up the men after the thori received a tipoff that young men were beg iated to a “homosexual club. In this rolutely Christian and Mlim untry, homosexualy is broadly rejected across society, as sual as a snub on the street and as ser as Sharia law that threatens ath by stong.

LAGOS (Rters) - A judge a Nigerian urt on Tuday threw out a se agast 47 men charged wh public displays of affectn wh members of same sex, endg what had wily been seen as a tt of the untry’s laws banng homosexual Nigerian law banng gay marriage, punishable by up to 14 years prison, and same-sex “amoro relatnships”, prompted an ternatnal outcry when me to force unr former Print Goodluck Jonathan men were arrted a police raid on a Lagos hotel the cy’s Egbeda district 2018. PREVIOUS REPORT: 'I'll never get my baby back': Fay of woman killed crash on North Freeway angry over lossHoton police said Sarah Gay was toxited when she drove northbound the southbound lan of the I-45 North Freeway near the Whe Oak ex and h two rs. Let’s get one thg right beg gay is not a s, but to murr someone on the grounds of their sexual orientatn and genr inty is a terrible abomatn.

LAGOS, Nigeria -- Life Nigeria, one of the world’s most anti-gay natns, is a daily stggle for Aola, a closeted, workg-class homosexual man livg on the outskirts of Abuja, the natn’s small, central (not his real name) has been lled offensive nam, sulted and ostracized over assumptns about his sexualy, so he shields his te self fear that g out would only attract more tense abe.

"MY HEART IS BROKEN" - OPENLY GAY NIGERIAN PASTOR, JI MAULAY REACTS TO ALLEGED MURR OF GAY MAN LAGOS

Meanwhile, some young, wealthy gay Nigerians who spend most of their time the louche, Wternized Victoria Island sectn of Lagos -- the massive, quickly mornizg megalopolis on Nigeria’s southwtern ast -- are able to live a quasi-open life spe the vilent homophobia that l much of the rt of the Aola, a portly man his thirti who earns a most livg as a ok at a terg pany Abuja, that life of openns is difficult to said he worri about discrimatn every time he walks out the door, pecially light of a law passed this year that, should be signed by Print Goodluck Jonathan, would make the sheer act of beg gay punishable by up to 14 years prison. ”Aola’s fears are supported by statistil evince: A study of 39 natns published by the Pew Rearch Center June emed Nigeria the least-acceptg natn of the lot for gays, wh 98 percent of survey rponnts sayg society should not accept homosexualy, edgg out ultranservative Jordan by a sgle percentage Acceptg BubbleSix upper-class gay profsnals who met wh the Internatnal Bs Tim at a Victoria Island rtrant last week say that bee they mostly stay wh that neighborhood’s fairly tolerant bubble, they are largely able to avoid Aola’s nstant state of fear.

Still, they, like everyone else terviewed for this story, asked to be assigned psdonyms bee of the harsh penalti that n rult om beg intified as gay the prs. ”Fatima is not gay per se -- she scrib her sexualy as “fluid” and said she is open to relatnships wh men or women -- but she mostly dat women. ”Crimalizg HomosexualyBeg gay Nigeria has long meant hidg the shadows of society, but fear and anxiety among most members of the natn’s gay muny have grown markedly sce May 30, when the Nigerian Senate passed a bill makg the simple act of beg homosexual a crime punishable by as long as 14 years prison.

Jonathan has not yet signed or vetoed the bill -- which was prevly passed by the Nigerian Hoe of Reprentativ -- nor has he sent a clear signal of which si he will eventually take on the ntroversial bill, upled wh legal rtrictns on gay marriage, is actually lenient pared wh the suatn faced by gays the Mlim-domated north of the natn, where Shariah Islamic law mak homosexualy a pal offense punishable some areas by stong to though the measure is not yet officially on the books, has already had a chillg effect on gay life Nigeria, acrdg to Aisha, a lbian iend of Fatima’s. ” But now, she said, there is a wily held, albe premature, belief that “’s illegal and rri a sentence” of more than a dozen years behd bars, which further timidat Nigeria’s gay populatn. Although Fatima nsirs Abuja to be “like gay central of Nigeria, ” the place she said she would go to “hook up wh a girl, several girls, one weekend, ” that si of gay life isn’t accsible to many homosexual rints of the pal who aren’t as well-heeled as said that due to the discrimatn he fac Abuja, he unrground channels and word-of-mouth to fd other gay people to teract wh or date.

GAY IN NIGERIA: LGBT LIFE IN ONE OF THE WORLD’S MOST HOMOPHOBIC NATNS

Someone you’re sure is gay troduc you to someone else who is, who troduc you to someone else who is, and so on, ” he, Aola has been threatened and sulted on numero ocsns. Kgsley, a straight iend of Aola’s who has wnsed anti-gay discrimatn of others firsthand Abuja and surroundg areas, said that such sentiments are sadly que mon Nigeria. “There are people like me who accept them, but then there are lots of people who once they fd out someone is gay, they refe to have any kd of ntact wh them, ” Kgsley explaed as we sat his sedan, wag out one of Abuja’s notor “go-slow” traffic jams.