Caught in the act…!

•Kano Hisbah arrests gay couple, 12 homosexuals at wedding ceremony

THE Kano Hisbah Board has paraded a suspected gay couple and 12 members of a homosexual club Monday at the popular Dawakin-Kudu Hills and Valley, a recreation centre, about 20 kilometres away from Kano city.

   The Same Sex Marriage Prohibition Act also criminalises homosexual clubs, associations and organizations, with penalties of up to 14 years in jail. The new law in Nigeria, signed by the president last year, has made it illegal for gay people to even hold forums or meetings in the country.

   Briefing journalists in his office Monday, Commander General of the Board, Sheikh Aminu Daurawa told the newsmen that the board captured the homosexual gang after it was intimated about the planned same-sex wedding between one Faruq Maiduguri, 20, (bride) and Abba Mohammed, 25, (groom) scheduled to hold at the recreation centre.

   According to the Board, Abba Mohammed, the groom and other members escaped during the raid.

  Aminu hinted that Faruq Maiduguri had invited his friends through social media from various states for a birthday ceremony in disguise for the botched marriage ceremony. Before then, Aminu revealed that the Board had earlier received notice from the family members of Faruq about the grand plan to get married to another man scheduled for the day.

  Aminu said: “ As you can see from their appearance and the way they looked, there is every element of homosexuality in them. We have arrested 12 of them, but Abba Mubammed escaped arrest and maybe we would have arrested more.”

  “We got information from the family of Faruq Maiduguri that he was planning to marry another man and they told us that they cautioned him severally but he refused.”

   “He personally brought the invitation to his family members but the invitation card we obtained was a birthday invitation. However, the family told us it was not a birthday.”

  However, Faruq told journalists that he was only celebrating his birthday before he was arrested.

  “I don’t know what they are talking about. I was celebrating my birthday before the Hisbah people came to the venue and arrested all of us. They accused me of planning a gay marriage but I told them I didn’t know what they were talking about,” the accused Faruq lamented.

  The Commander General of Hisbah told journalists that the board had commenced full- scale investigation on the case and would brief the media on the next line of action.

  Nigeria’s law, as a religious and conservative society, considers homosexuality a deviation. Nigeria is one of the 38 African countries, about 70 per cent of the continent, that have laws persecuting gay people, according to Amnesty International.