Police officer warns gays to leave Nigeria

A high-ranking Nigerian policewoman has warned gay people living in the country to leave or risk criminal prosecution.

Dolapo Badmos, a Chief Superintendent and spokeswoman for the Lagos State Police Command, made the comments on her personal Instagram account, which is set to private and has 125,000 followers.

"If you're homosexually inclined, Nigeria is not a place for you," Badmos wrote last week.
"There is a law (Same-sex Prohibition Act) here that criminalizes homosexual clubs, associations, and organizations with penalties of up to 14yeats (sic) in jail.

"So if you are homosexual in nature, leave the country or face prosecution," wrote Badmos, who has attained celebrity status in the country due to her frequent social media posts.

Former Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan signed the controversial Same Sex Marriage Prohibition Act (SSMPA) into law, despite widespread international objection.

Those found guilty of being in a same-sex relationship face up to 14 years in jail.

The law was widely condemned by human rights organizations such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch at the time, as well as the then United States Secretary of State, John Kerry.

Badmos' comments are the latest reminder of the challenges facing members of the LGBT community in a country where the anti-gay law enjoys broad support among its citizens.
According to a survey of 2,000 individuals conducted by The Initiative for Equal Rights (TIERs), a Nigeria-based human rights organization, about 90% of Nigerians support the continued enforcement of the SSMPA.

Following her post, Badmos received scores of comments, with most of them expressing support for the proposed prosecution of gay people living in Nigeria. "It is illegal and ungodly," one user wrote.

Another user said, "we must say no to lesbianism and homosexuality it's evil."

Badmos did not respond to CNN's requests for clarification on her comments.

A spokesman for Lagos State police declined to comment and referred the inquiry back to Badmos.
Olumide Makanjuola, executive director at TIERs, told CNN the Instagram post is tantamount to inciting violence against LGBTQ people in Nigeria, calling her comments "unacceptable."

"Police should be wary with their statement and if they incite violence. What she said is out of line," Makanjuola said.

Homophobia is widespread in many African countries.

More than half of the countries on the continent have enacted laws that make it illegal to be gay and in several, including Somalia and South Sudan, homosexuality is punishable by death.

A 2013 Pew Research survey found that 98% of people in Nigeria believe LGBTQ people should not be accepted by society.

However, a 2017 survey by NOI Polls commissioned by TIERs showed a seven percent increase in the acceptance rates of LGBTQ people in Nigeria when compared to a similar survey from two years earlier.

Many of the people who commented under Badmos' post also singled out an openly transgender individual, who is prominent on social media, and called for their arrest.

CNN 

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Oby Ezekwesili quits Nigeria presidential race

The main female candidate in Nigeria's upcoming presidential election has said she is withdrawing her candidacy to help build a coalition to defeat the ruling All Progressive Congress.

Oby Ezekwesili of the Allied Congress Party of Nigeria (ACPN) announced her decision on Thursday morning in a series of posts on Twitter.

"I have decided to step down from the presidential race and focus on helping to build a Coalition for a viable alternative to the #APCPDP in the 2019 general elections," she said.

"This coalition for a viable alternative has now more than ever before become an urgent mission for and on behalf of the citizenry," she added.

"Over the past three months, I have been in private extended talks with other candidates to make a coalition possible that would allow Nigerians to exercise choice without feeling helplessly saddled with the #APCPDP."

The main female candidate in Nigeria's upcoming presidential election has said she is withdrawing her candidacy to help build a coalition to defeat the ruling All Progressive Congress.

Oby Ezekwesili of the Allied Congress Party of Nigeria (ACPN) announced her decision on Thursday morning in a series of posts on Twitter.

"I have decided to step down from the presidential race and focus on helping to build a Coalition for a viable alternative to the #APCPDP in the 2019 general elections," she said.

"This coalition for a viable alternative has now more than ever before become an urgent mission for and on behalf of the citizenry," she added.

"Over the past three months, I have been in private extended talks with other candidates to make a coalition possible that would allow Nigerians to exercise choice without feeling helplessly saddled with the #APCPDP."

Al Jazeera

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Conflict between farmers and herders are affecting Nigeria's rising levels of poverty. Analysts say the violence is forcing millions of people, mostly poor farmers, from their lands.

20,000 Nigerian girls trafficked to Mali for prostitution

Nigeria's anti-trafficking agency says it has received concrete intelligence that around 20,000 Nigerian girls have been forced into prostitution in Mali.

Many of the girls are working in hotels and nightclubs after being sold to prostitution rings by human traffickers, according to a fact-finding mission carried out by the agency in collaboration with Malian authorities in December.

NAPTIP's Arinze Osakwe told CNN most of the girls said they were lured by human traffickers who promised them employment in Malaysia.

"The new trend is that they told them they were taking them to Malaysia and they found themselves in Mali. They told them they would be working in five-star restaurants where they would be paid $700 per month," Osakwe, who was part of an earlier NAPTIP rescue mission, said.

Some of the girls had been sold as sex slaves in gold mining camps in northern parts of Mali, he said.
Officials from the agency under Operation Timbuktu rescued 104 Nigerian girls from three brothels in Bamako, Mali's capital in 2011.

They were forced to become sex workers in mining communities in northern Mali.

"We brought back 104 girls just from three ramshackle brothels, and those were the ones that were even willing to come. They were mostly between the age of 13 and 25, and they had been trapped in the country for many years," Osakwe said.

"Since then, we have been working with local authorities and receiving reports from the Nigerian embassy in Bamako that the number of Nigerian girls trafficked to Mali has spiked tremendously," he said.

The agency said it is working with Malian authorities, the International Organization for Migration and National Emergency Management Agency to send the girls back to Nigeria.
Every year, tens of thousands of Nigerians are trafficked illegally to destinations abroad especially Europe.

Around 97 percent of victims are women, and 77 percent have been sexually exploited by their traffickers, according to IOM estimates.

CNN 

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Outbreak of Lassa fever in Nigeria

Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, NCDC, yesterday, declared an outbreak of Lassa fever in the country, following an upsurge in the number of confirmed cases recorded across states since 1st January.

Dr. Chikwe Ihekweazu, Director-General of NCDC, announced this in Abuja. He said: “There has been an increase in the number of Lassa fever cases reported from several states across the country since the beginning of the year. “As at January 13, 60 confirmed cases have been reported in eight states. “Given this increase in reported cases, Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, NCDC, has declared this an outbreak.” He also said an Emergency Operations Centre, EOC, has been activated to coordinate the nationwide response to the outbreak, noting that the EOC includes World Health Organisation, WHO; mini-stries of Agriculture and Rural Development, Environment, US Centres for Disease Control, among others.

Vanguard