Nigerian anti-gay law sparks witch hunt
Captured men tortured for names of others: activists
LAGOS, Nigeria — First the police targeted the gay men, then tortured them into naming dozens of others who now are being hunted down, human rights activists said Tuesday, warning that such persecution will rise under a new Nigerian law.
The men’s alleged crime? Belonging to a gay organization. The punishment? Up to 10 years in jail under the Same Sex Marriage Prohibition Act that is getting international condemnation.
Dubbed the “Jail the Gays” bill, it further criminalizes homosexuality and will endanger programs fighting HIV-AIDS in the gay community, Dorothy Aken’Ova, executive director of Nigeria’s International Centre for Reproductive Health and Sexual Rights, told The Associated Press on Tuesday.
On Monday, Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan’s office confirmed that he signed the Same Sex Marriage Prohibition Act that criminalizes gay marriage, gay organizations and anyone working with or promoting them.
The witch hunt in Bauchi state began with a wild rumour that the United States had paid gay activists $20 million to promote samesex marriage in this highly religious and conservative nation, according to an AIDS counsellor.
He said he helped get bail for some 38 men arrested since Christmas. The man spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of arrest.
Aken’Ova, whose organization is helping with legal services for the arrested men, said a law enforcement officer pretending to be a gay man joined a group being counselled on AIDS. Police detained four gay men and then tortured them until they named others allegedly belonging to a gay organization, she said, adding that police now have a list of 168 wanted gay men. She said the arrests began over Christmas and blamed “all the noise that was going on surrounding the bill.”
Chairman Mustapha Baba Ilela of Bauchi state Shariah Commission, which oversees regulation of Islamic law, said 11 gay men have been arrested in the past two weeks, and that community members helped “fish out” suspects.
“We are on the hunt for others,” he said, refusing to say how many.
Bauchi state has both Shariah law and a Western-style penal code. Shariah is Islamic law, which is implemented to different degrees in nine of Nigeria’s 36 states.
Ilela said all 11 arrested — 10 Muslims and a non-Muslim — signed confessions that they belonged to a gay organization, but that some retracted the statements in court.
He denied there was any force involved: “They have never been tortured, they have never been beaten, they have never been intimidated.”
Olumide Makanjuola said lawyers for his Initiative For Equality in Nigeria are backing lawsuits of several homosexuals arrested without cause. He said police regularly go through cellphones of gay suspects, then send messages to lure in others. They are told they will be charged and their sexuality exposed unless they pay bribes.
While harsh, Nigeria’s law is not as draconian as a bill in Uganda that’s awaiting President Yoweri Museveni’s signature. It provides penalties including life imprisonment for “aggravated” gay sex. Initially, legislators had been demanding the death sentence for gays.
The Nigeria law provides penalties of up to 14 years in jail for a gay marriage and up to 10 years for membership or encouragement of gay clubs and organizations. That could include groups formed to combat AIDS among gays.
The UN agency fighting AIDS and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria expressed “deep concern that access to HIV services for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people will be severely affected by a new law in Nigeria — further criminalizing LGBT people, organizations and activities, as well as people who support them.”