By Dickson Blessing
The agency responsible for enforcing Islamic law in Kano State reported that twelve young men were arrested on the charges of preparing a gay marriage.
The men, most of them who are teenagers were arrested on Monday 26th of January in a hotel in the suburbs of the city said Aminu Daurawa, the head of the Hisbah, the agency charged with enforcing sharia.
“We have 12 men in detention, including ‘the bride’. We stopped them in the room where was to be held a gay marriage,” said Mr. Daurawa. “Our men stormed the room while the wedding was about to begin.”
Faruk 18, one of the arrested participant from Maiduguri denied the charge and told pressmen that he was just having a birthday party with his friends. “It was my birthday party, not a gay marriage,” he bursted out in tears.
The suspects had come not just from Kano but from other northern states, Maiduguri, Kaduna, Bauchi and South west- Ibadan and Osogbo. Mr. Daurawa said the suspects from these areas had a feminine appearance and behaviour. He did not specify if the suspects would be prosecuted but the families have been convened.
These young ones have been arrested based on the fact that Homosexuality is banned by federal law in Nigeria, which was passed last year a new law prohibiting marriage between persons of the same sex.
In the northern states, where sharia (Islamic law) is applied parallel to the state and federal judicial systems, homosexuality is punishable by death, though this sentence is rarely imposed.
