Homophobic attacks still gathering momentum in rural Nigeria.
5 min read
Monday 13 January 2014 was a day the LGBT community in Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country will never be in a hurry to forget. It was on this day, a former President of Nigeria Goodluck Jonathan signed the anti- gay bill into law. The move which was applauded by several organizations and faith based institutions across the country, also attracted international and local criticisms from advocacy groups and the members of the LGBT community in Nigeria and their sympathizers. In their own analysis, several of the LGBT sympathizers were of the view that the signing of the bill into law would elevate human rights violations across the country and even lead to extra judicial killings of suspected members of the LGBT community in the country.
As practitioners of citizens’ journalism, Umuaka Times findings in the rural areas have to a very large extent shown that there is a gross violation of human rights of many young men across Nigeria on mere suspicions based on LGBT connections. These violations strongly focus on speculations either by the police authorities or by criminals who masquerade as enforcers of the anti-LGBT laws in the country. The local affairs correspondents of Umuaka Times report that many suspected LGBT persons have so far been beaten up by criminals who take the laws into their hands and there is also some reported cases of lynching of such suspects in the rural areas of the country especially in the Southeastern part of Nigeria.
The anti-gay laws in Nigeria from the findings made by Umuaka Times, show that being a member of any same sex relationships, marriage or associations in the country is where the trouble lies and it attracts a maximum of 14 years in imprisonment. But for someone to openly declare his gayness does not in any way violate the laws but trust Nigerians and their law enforcers; several persons suspected to be members of the LGBT community across the country especially in the rural areas, have so far been brutalized even to the point of death by some criminals who pose as unofficial enforcers of the laws.
From the eyes of the critics of the anti-gay laws, it will be difficult to prove a public display of affection between persons of the same sex in law court. For this to adequately take place, there must be some trusted and unbiased witnesses as well as some devices to strengthen the evidence. Despite these flaws, several illegal arrests which were followed by torture and detentions have continued to hit up the LGBT community in Nigeria. According to a report in New York Times under the title, “Inside the broken lives of Nigerian gay law suspects”, the New York Times reported that about 57 police officers clamped down a social gathering where the police alleged that young boys were being initiated into a gay club. Based on this reasoning or opinion, Umuaka Times gathered that the police arrested everybody seen within the environment including a taxi driver that brought some people to the event. This event which took place in Lagos attracted international attention and outcry but after a couple of months, the suspects were all released and set free. The raid according to the New York Times was ordered by the then Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Imohimi Edgar. Till date, the Lagos State Police Division never disclosed what its officers saw during the raid that led to the charge of public displays of same-sex affection against the suspects.
In 2013, precisely in a community known as Ekwe in Isu LGA of Imo State, three men were brutally beaten in a homophobic attack and stripped naked for allegedly being gay. The men were paraded subsequently paraded in the streets of Ekwe town. Till date, Umuaka Times gathered that neither the men nor their attackers were prosecuted.
Just recently on January 26, 2024, there was yet another homophobic attack in the same Ekwe community where a young man was again mercilessly beaten up, injured and left almost lifeless after being attacked by a group of boys who accused him of being a member of the LGBT community.
The case of Duru Obinna Darlington, a young LGBT fellow from the same Ekwe community is by all standards highly pathetic. Although he is lucky to be alive today to narrate his ordeal to Umuaka Times but his case demands an urgent attention before the worst happens to him. Darlington is luckier than those who have been so far killed or seriously beaten up under similar circumstances. From Umuaka Times investigations, his family got a tip-off that her son is gay, the family summoned him for a meeting and as the meeting was about to hold, Obinna sensed danger and escaped from the compound. The family after making frantic and abortive attempts to get hold of him then decided to do the worst. According to Obinna who spoke to Umuaka Times from his hideout, “My family has marked me for death because of my sexuality. I was told that many people have been told to get me either dead or alive. As I am now, I am homeless, jobless and I fear every person that comes close to me. Please help me out. I don’t want to die young.”
An attorney who spoke with Umuaka Times on the subject of homophobic attacks in rural Nigeria warned the newspaper to handle the issue with caution so as not to be attacked under the circumstances of transferred aggression either by the family or her agents and the society at large.
While holding talks with Duru Obinna Darlington, Umuaka Times confirmed that the poor boy was already having suicidal thinking unless help comes his way as soon as possible. “These days, I even fear my shadows. The thinking of being lynched on daily basis has permanently locked me up. Please I need help.”
Charles Kayaman (not real name) was not as lucky as Duru Darlington Obinna. In April 2020, one anti LGBT criminal simply known as Angus Chukwebuka Nwankwo, murdered him in total cold blood under the circumstances of homophobic attacks. Reports which emerged shortly after the murder, stated that both the killers and the killed met on Facebook before agreeing to meet physically. Kayaman who was a native of Benue State but lived in Owerri the capital city of Imo State till the time of his murder, was lured to a rural community in Orumba North LGA of Anambra State in a town known as Nanka by his assailants. After the murder of the victim, Angus Chukwebuka Nwankwo dumped the corpse of Kayaman in a bush with the help of his accomplice simply identified as Chidiebere Omeyi.
As Umuaka Times elevates citizens’ journalism in the rural areas it operates, the newspaper believes in the total enthronement of human rights and condemns in outright terms, any form of human rights abuses by anybody against anybody. The anti-gay laws of the Federal Government of Nigeria have come to stay and nobody has the right to act under the illusion of protecting the laws or advancing the sanctity of the society through human rights abuses and abuse the rights of others. In any society, it is illegal to use the instrumentality of illegality to fight illegality. Any LGBT community member in Nigeria who violates the laws
