The Nigeria Police Force, Delta State Command, has described how it busted a wedding party being held by persons suspected to be homosexuals.
In Nigeria, homosexuality is a crime, as the Same-Sex Marriage (Prohibition) Bill was signed into law on January 7, 2014, by then President Goodluck Jonathan.
Among others, the law imposes a 14-year prison sentence on anyone who “[enters] into a same-sex marriage contract or civil union,” and a 10-year sentence on individuals or groups, including religious leaders, who “witness, abet, and aid the solemnization of a same-sex marriage or union.”
The Delta Police Command says its men have arrested young men and women who are alleged to be members of the LGBTQ community.
The operation was carried out while the suspects were allegedly in the middle of a gay marriage ceremony at a hotel in Delta State.
Addressing Press men in the state, the Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Bright Edafe, said the Police got a hint of the ceremony after arresting a man named Chuks, who was reportedly parading the streets late at night and dressed in female attire.
“He claimed he was an actor in Delta for a shoot initially, but after grueling interrogation sessions at the Police Station, he confessed to being a member of the gay community and was headed to the venue of a gay wedding ceremony,” Edafe said.
“At about 21:00 hours, while the police patrol team attached to Ekpan Police Station was on patrol/visibility duty at the refinery road here, they intercepted one Chuks Chinwe, dressed like a lady.
“Upon intercepting him, he told the policemen that he was an actor from Lagos state here to shoot a movie in Delta state. They brought him to the station and continued interrogating him before he now gave us a confessional statement that he belongs to the gay society and they were having a ceremony at one hotel called the Tibullus along Refinery Road here in Ekpan in the midnight of 28th, August 2023.
“The policemen stormed the hotel where about 200 suspects were initially arrested. Majority of them were dressed like females and the funniest part of it, or rather the amazing part of it was that we saw two suspects dressed, one as the bride and one as the groom,” Edafe added.
He said though about 200 persons were rounded up initially, the number was reduced to 67 after hours of interrogation and investigation and the 67 are the ones out on parade. “After screening them, we have about 67 suspects that we are parading today,” the PRO said.
DSP Bright Edafe said the paraded suspects will be made to face the full wrath of the law.
