18 Nigerian gays face death
2007-08-09 18:35
Lagos - Eighteen men have been arrested in northern Nigeria for alleged sodomy, which carries the death sentence under Bauchi state's Islamic shari'ah law, the official NAN news agency reported on Thursday.
Judge Malam Tanimu ordered the 18 remanded in prison until a further hearing on August 21 following their arrest on Sunday in a hotel in Bauchi city.
The court on Wednesday heard that the men, who were wearing female clothing, had come to the city from five neighbouring states to celebrate a gay "marriage".
Prosecuting police officer Tadius Boboi said the men's actions had contravened the shari'ah penal code adopted in Bauchi and other states in Muslim northern Nigeria eight years ago following the end of military rule.
In June an agency tasked with implementing shari'ah law in Bauchi called on the new state governor to approve three sentences of death by stoning and 40 of amputation passed since 2002 which his predecessor had refused to ratify.
The death sentences were passed for sexual offences, including one for sodomy.
In a Nigerian shari'ah state the governor must give his approval before punishments like death and amputation passed by shari'ah courts are actually carried out.