The Nigerian police have ordered the arrest of some people who claimed to belong to the Nigerian lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) community, in a video clip they featured.
Olumuyiwa Adejobi, the spokesperson of the Force headquarters, gave the order in a statement posted on X on Thursday. The police had earlier said they were investigating the video after Mr Adejobi’s attention was drawn to it by an X user. In the 50-second video, four males and three females said to be participating in an online LGBTQ challenge, confessed to being bisexual, lesbian, transgender and gay.
Responding to the video, Police spokesperson Olumuyiwa Adejobi labelled the individuals “criminals” and their actions “unnatural and punishable under Nigerian law.” He cited sections of the Nigerian Criminal Code and Penal Code that criminalize same-sex sexual activity and marriage.
“We, therefore, emphasise the importance of understanding and adhering to these laws as any violation will be met with due legal processes. We need to collectively kick against such while we urge parents and guardians to take note and support the Police in the fight against such inhuman activities which are alien to our culture and also punishable under the law,” he said.
Nigeria’s anti-gay law, enacted in 2014, casts a long shadow over the LGBTQ community. It imposes a harsh 14-year prison sentence for same-sex sexual activity, a stark reality that has led to numerous arrests and prosecutions. In 2019, 47 men arrested for publicly displaying affection in Lagos faced the law’s harsh reality, though the case was ultimately dismissed due to police neglect. More recently, last year’s arrest of over 100 individuals at a Delta State wedding highlights the ongoing targeting of LGBTQ individuals and underscores the chilling effect of the law on their lives.
