The Speaker of the 10th Cross River State House of Assembly, CRSHA has sent a strong warning to operators of hospitality in the state to desist from hosting the LGBTQ2iC community or face prosecution NEGROIDHAVEN can report authoritatively.
Rt. Hon. Elvert Ayambem expressed his disapproval on Tuesday following the news of the illegal community allegedly meeting at a hotel facility located at Ekorinim in Calabar the state capital metropolis.
In a statement signed by the Chief Press Secretary to the 10th Speaker, Matthew Okache, it says ‘Speaker Ayambem, further wants to seize this occasion to warn anyone or any organization in connection with such unlawful activities to desist from such acts or risk prosecution by the authorities’.
In addition, Speaker Ayambem, reminded hospitality operators in the State that, no hotel or club should entertain anyone under 18 years of age at any time, unless he/she is accompanied by their parents/and or guardians.
Reportedly, on the 30th of June 2023, a certain hotel in Ekorinim in Calabar Municipality, hosted a LGBTQ2iC party in their premises, where adolescents were also in attendance.
The LGBTQ2iC practice is a crime in Nigeria. On the 7th of January 2014, signed the ‘Same-Sex Marriage (Prohibition) Bill’ into law. The act 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 act also imposes a 10-year prison sentence on those who ‘directly or indirectly make public show of same-sex amorous relationships and anyone who registers, operates, or participates in gay clubs, societies, and organizations, including supporters of those groups.’
