An angry Mob of youths armed with clubs and iron bars mounted a vicious attack on 14 young men in Abuja who they suspect of being gay yesterday dragging them out of their houses and beating them up.
According to human rights groups, after subjecting the victims to a good beating, the victims were them marched to the police station. Ifeanyi Orazulike of the International Center on Advocacy for the Right to Health, said that at least four of the victims were marched to a police station where they were kicked and punched by police officers who yelled pejoratives at them.
He added that the police then threatened the men that they would be incarcerated for 14 years, which is the maximum prison sentence under Nigeria’s new Same Sex Marriage Prohibition Act. On January 7 this year, President Goodluck Jonathan signed the bill into law and since then, there has been an escalation in the attacks on gays across Nigeria.
Activists have warned that the law could trigger attacks such as the one perpetrated in the early hours of Thursday morning in Abuja. Mob justice is common in Nigeria and civil rights organizations have been warning for years of an increase in community violence and the government’s failure to curb such acts.
A US Embassy spokesman added:“Since the Same Sex Marriage Prohibition Act was signed, we have expressed concern as a friend of Nigeria that it might be used by some to justify violence against Nigerians based on their sexual orientation. Recent attacks in Abuja deepen our concern on this front.”
Mr Orazulike said he got an email from a colleague who said he was hiding from a mob of 40 people who struck around 1am on Thursday. Apparently, the youths were going from house to house saying their mission was to cleanse the area of gays, using pieces of wood and iron to beat up 14 young men.
According to Mr Orazulike, he drove from his home at 4an on Thursday morning to save a man in Gishiri, a shantytown near Abuja. He added that those attacked are in hiding and too scared to speak out or recount their stories.
He added that the gay men were told that if they came back, they would be killed and the walls of houses where they lived had been painted with graffiti declaring. messages inscribed on the walls read: “Homosexuals, pack and leave.”
New York human rights group the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission warned: “It is important that people understand that this kind of violence can happen to anyone. The government seems to have abdicated its responsibility to protect people from violence and impunity.”
Mr Orazulike said he later went to the police station later Thursday and met with a senior officer who ordered the four men released because there was no evidence that they were gay and they had not been caught having sex. He added that all four were severely injured and others suffered bruises and they were treated at his organization’s clinic because they were afraid to go to the hospital after the police had slapped, kicked and swore at them.
Dorothy Aken’Ova, the executive director of Nigeria’s International Center for Reproductive Health and Sexual Rights, said she stayed up all night Wednesday trying to get the police and Civil Defence to send officers to the scene after she got a phone call from a man who was being attacked. However, she said none of the security agencies responded to her distress.
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