The Nigerian Police have arrested 21 young men under the age
of 25 for allegedly belonging to a gay cult. The men were arrested in Ibadan
last week after allegedly being caught at a birthday party with about 122
condoms.
The Scoopng is reporting that although the organizer of the
event claimed that it was just a birthday party, the policemen accused them of
holding an initiation into an ‘evil gay cult’ after the discovery of 122
condoms and the absence of females.
The policemen said that they had received a tip claiming
that the occupants of the room were gay. The police also said that the absence
of females corroborated with the claim of their informant that it was indeed a
gay cult.
A human rights organisation, The Initiative for Equal Rights
(TIER) has since spoken out against the arrest of the young men after receiving
a call on May 10, 2015.
“At the point of arrest, the young men were physically
assaulted and treated in a manner unbecoming of any legal process: they were
photographed in their underwear, made to write statements under duress and
locked up in an overcrowded cell,” the spokesman of the organization said.
The police initially refused to grant the young men bail and
transfer of the case to the state courts until the intervention of a lawyer
from the International Center for Reproductive Health and Sexual Rights
(INCRESE). They were given different bail notices from N5,000 to N10,000.
The organiser of the party had to pay N21,000. In spite of
the way they were treated, the arrested young men refused to appeal against the
treatment on order to prevent being branded as gay. Reports revealed that 11
out of the 21 had been bailed by their family and friends, while 10 were left
in detention.
INCRESE however provided the fund for bail for the remaining
10 detainees and took them to a safe house. The 21 claimed that the police
further extorted money from each of them when they all returned to the police
station on May 14, 2015 before they were allowed to leave.
“It is obvious that there is a need to create more public
awareness and the need for victims to take up cases with solid support of the
movement. Without this, cases like this will continue to occur with limited or
no option for proper adjudication for justice”, the TIER spokesman said.
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