Forty-seven Nigerian men pleaded innocent on Wednesday to a charge of public displays of affection with members of the same sex, an offence that carries a 10-year jail term.
Homosexuality is outlawed in many socially conservative African societies where some religious groups brand it a corrupting Western import.
The Nigerian men, who appeared at a court in the commercial capital Lagos, were among 57 arrested in a police raid on a hotel in the impoverished Egbeda district of the city in 2018.
Police said they were being “initiated” into a gay club, but the accused said they were attending a birthday party.
The trial is a test case for a law banning gay marriage, punishable by a 14-year jail term, and same-sex “amorous relationships”. It caused international outcry when it came into force under former Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan in 2014.
Nobody has yet been convicted under the law, prosecution and defence lawyers in the case told Reuters. But Human Rights Watch and other activists say it has been used to extort bribes from suspects in exchange for not pursuing charges.
“Police officers will stop you and then get you arrested, extort money from you and begin to call you names,” Smart Joel, one of the defendants, told Reuters before the hearing. “I just wish the case will be quickly dismissed as soon as possible,” added Joel, 25, who runs a laundry and dry cleaning business.
Spokesmen for Nigeria’s police and ministry of justice did not respond to text messages and phone calls seeking comment on the extortion allegations.
Activists working to protect rights of sexual minorities in Nigeria said they were tired of harassment.
“The vagueness of the law makes it impossible to get a conviction,” Xeenarh Mohammed, executive director of the Lagos-based Initiative for Equal Rights (TIERS), told Reuters. “What does ‘amorous showing of same-sex affection’ mean?” she added.
The case was adjourned until Dec. 11.
The judge granted each of the men bail, provided they can post 500,000 naira ($1,634.52) and provide a surety who is either a civil servant or resides in Lagos state and has a “reasonable” income.
Reuters
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Hunting down gays in Nigeria
Video - Nigeria's anti-gay law denounced
Thursday, November 28, 2019
Wednesday, November 27, 2019
Head of jail security arrested after inmate $1m fraud heist
The head of a maximum-security jail and a prison doctor have been arrested in Nigeria, following allegations that they enabled a prisoner to conduct internet scams.
Hope Olusegun Aroke carried out a million-dollar fraud while serving a 24-year jail sentence - for fraud.
He had access to a mobile phone and the internet.
He was originally arrested in 2012 and convicted of obtaining money under false pretences and forgery.
The country's Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) said the two prison staff were arrested for falsifying medical reports that enabled Aroke to get treatment outside prison in a police hospital.
"The first suspect, [Emmanuel] Oluwaniyi, who is the Controller, Kirikiri Maximum Prison, as well as the second suspect, [Hemeson Edson] Edwin, who is in charge of the medical facility, were arrested on Monday, November 25, 2019, by operatives of the commission," the EFCC said in a statement.
Aroke was one of two Malaysia-based Nigerian undergraduate fraudsters arrested by the EFCC towards the end of 2012 in Lagos, following a tip-off, the commission added.
He had claimed to be a student of computer science at Malaysia's Kuala Lumpur Metropolitan University, but was in fact the "arrow head of an intricate web of internet fraud schemes that traverse two continents", it said.
He used a network of accomplices to commit the fraud, it added.
After getting himself admitted to a police hospital, authorities say Aroke moved to a hotel, receiving guests and attending parties.
He had used the fictitious name Akinwunmi Sorinmade to open two bank accounts and bought a luxury car and homes during his time in prison.
BBC
Related story: Nigerian scammer 'pulls off $1m heist' from prison
Hope Olusegun Aroke carried out a million-dollar fraud while serving a 24-year jail sentence - for fraud.
He had access to a mobile phone and the internet.
He was originally arrested in 2012 and convicted of obtaining money under false pretences and forgery.
The country's Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) said the two prison staff were arrested for falsifying medical reports that enabled Aroke to get treatment outside prison in a police hospital.
"The first suspect, [Emmanuel] Oluwaniyi, who is the Controller, Kirikiri Maximum Prison, as well as the second suspect, [Hemeson Edson] Edwin, who is in charge of the medical facility, were arrested on Monday, November 25, 2019, by operatives of the commission," the EFCC said in a statement.
Aroke was one of two Malaysia-based Nigerian undergraduate fraudsters arrested by the EFCC towards the end of 2012 in Lagos, following a tip-off, the commission added.
He had claimed to be a student of computer science at Malaysia's Kuala Lumpur Metropolitan University, but was in fact the "arrow head of an intricate web of internet fraud schemes that traverse two continents", it said.
He used a network of accomplices to commit the fraud, it added.
After getting himself admitted to a police hospital, authorities say Aroke moved to a hotel, receiving guests and attending parties.
He had used the fictitious name Akinwunmi Sorinmade to open two bank accounts and bought a luxury car and homes during his time in prison.
BBC
Related story: Nigerian scammer 'pulls off $1m heist' from prison
Tuesday, November 26, 2019
Video - Para-athlete tells of tough times for players in Nigeria
Amputee football is a neglected sport in Nigeria. The country's team has struggled to get government funding and attract sponsorship. Players are facing tough times despite making it to the Amputee Football World Cup in Mexico last year and finishing runners-up during the 2019 African Cup of Nations in Angola last month.
Nigeria vows to end HIV scourge by 2030
Nigeria is determined to end the HIV epidemic by 2030, in line with the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS vision, the country's Health Minister Osagie Ehanire said Monday.
The minister restated Nigeria's commitment to achieving viral suppression through what he called "detection, treatment and suppression" at the launch of a campaign to fight HIV/AIDS by the National Agency for the Control of AIDS (NACA) in Abuja.
Ehanire highlighted Nigeria's achievements in HIV treatment interventions, started in 1986 when the epidemic was first reported in the country.
Gambo Aliyu, head of NACA, expressed his satisfaction with Nigeria's achievements in tackling HIV/AIDS as official indicator showed the country's HIV prevalence fell from 4.4 percent in 2005 to 1.4 percent in 2018.
He ascribed the success to efforts by communities in partnership with the government and foreign assistance in the last 15 years.
Xinhua
The minister restated Nigeria's commitment to achieving viral suppression through what he called "detection, treatment and suppression" at the launch of a campaign to fight HIV/AIDS by the National Agency for the Control of AIDS (NACA) in Abuja.
Ehanire highlighted Nigeria's achievements in HIV treatment interventions, started in 1986 when the epidemic was first reported in the country.
Gambo Aliyu, head of NACA, expressed his satisfaction with Nigeria's achievements in tackling HIV/AIDS as official indicator showed the country's HIV prevalence fell from 4.4 percent in 2005 to 1.4 percent in 2018.
He ascribed the success to efforts by communities in partnership with the government and foreign assistance in the last 15 years.
Xinhua
Nigerians spending half a billion dollars to school in America
The rot in Nigeria’s educational system is costing the country hundreds of millions of dollars.
Over the past academic year, the economic impact of spending by Nigerian students studying in the United States reached $514 million, data from the Institute of International Education shows. The figure outstrips the economic impact of students from France, Germany and the United Kingdom in the US.
Keeping in trend with a long-standing preference for seeking education abroad, Nigeria was the only African country ranked among the top 25 origin countries for international students in the US over the past year.
The entire budgetary allocation for education in Nigeria for 2019 came in at $1.7 billion (620.5 billion naira), which critics pointed out was 15% to 20% below the minimum level recommended for developing countries by the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO).
Nigerian students studying in the US crossed the 13,000 mark in the last academic year—double the number at the start of the decade. In comparison, there have never been more than 50 US students studying in Nigeria each year in the last decade.
The choice of seeking education in the US is largely driven by local problems. Perennial under-funding of education in Nigeria has resulted in significant decline in both the quality of teachers and infrastructure in schools. At the tertiary level, the problems are compounded by recurring strike actions by public university lecturers amid protests of low wages and benefits.
These problems have fueled a rise in expensive private universities which offer the promise of fixed calendars without strike action and better facilities as viable alternatives for middle and high-income families seeking higher standards. But there’s still a capacity problem as Nigeria’s university system, which holds over 150 schools, remains mostly over-populated. As such, only one in four Nigerians applying to university will get a spot. Between 2010 and 2015, only 26% of the 10 million applicants that sought entry into Nigerian tertiary institutions gained admission, according to Nigeria’s statistics agency.
The appeal of foreign universities also goes beyond the availability of better facilities as parents typically seek to unlock a higher level of opportunities for their children. It’s a sentiment that’s currently driving migration of middle-class Nigerians to Canada and Europe.
In cases where the students return home, their expensive, foreign degrees also provide an edge in Nigeria’s very competitive labor market. In comparison, about half of graduates from Nigerian universities annually are estimated to remain unemployed.
By Yomi Kazeem
Quartz
Over the past academic year, the economic impact of spending by Nigerian students studying in the United States reached $514 million, data from the Institute of International Education shows. The figure outstrips the economic impact of students from France, Germany and the United Kingdom in the US.
Keeping in trend with a long-standing preference for seeking education abroad, Nigeria was the only African country ranked among the top 25 origin countries for international students in the US over the past year.
The entire budgetary allocation for education in Nigeria for 2019 came in at $1.7 billion (620.5 billion naira), which critics pointed out was 15% to 20% below the minimum level recommended for developing countries by the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO).
Nigerian students studying in the US crossed the 13,000 mark in the last academic year—double the number at the start of the decade. In comparison, there have never been more than 50 US students studying in Nigeria each year in the last decade.
The choice of seeking education in the US is largely driven by local problems. Perennial under-funding of education in Nigeria has resulted in significant decline in both the quality of teachers and infrastructure in schools. At the tertiary level, the problems are compounded by recurring strike actions by public university lecturers amid protests of low wages and benefits.
These problems have fueled a rise in expensive private universities which offer the promise of fixed calendars without strike action and better facilities as viable alternatives for middle and high-income families seeking higher standards. But there’s still a capacity problem as Nigeria’s university system, which holds over 150 schools, remains mostly over-populated. As such, only one in four Nigerians applying to university will get a spot. Between 2010 and 2015, only 26% of the 10 million applicants that sought entry into Nigerian tertiary institutions gained admission, according to Nigeria’s statistics agency.
The appeal of foreign universities also goes beyond the availability of better facilities as parents typically seek to unlock a higher level of opportunities for their children. It’s a sentiment that’s currently driving migration of middle-class Nigerians to Canada and Europe.
In cases where the students return home, their expensive, foreign degrees also provide an edge in Nigeria’s very competitive labor market. In comparison, about half of graduates from Nigerian universities annually are estimated to remain unemployed.
By Yomi Kazeem
Quartz
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