Posted by The Port Harcourt Telegraph on
One month or so after a couple of young men (lovers) were caught and detained at the Rumuokoro Police Station, information gathered show that they cannot be traced anymore.
One month or so after a couple of young men (lovers) were caught and detained at the Rumuokoro Police Station, information gathered show that they cannot be traced anymore.
Investigations reveal that police swooped on a hideout about 15th January, 2005 on a tip-off and met two vibrant young men in sexually suggestive positions. When asked what they were doing, they promptly volunteered that they were both in love with each other. An act referred as homosexuality, Sodomy or gay, a crime in the legal statutes of Nigeria.
The young men identified as Ogudu Emmanuel and Odjegba Tevin were arrested and taken to the Rumuokoro Police Station for further questioning.
Homosexuality or gay practice is a crime, which the church and society are fighting very seriously because of the harmful and dangerous effects it has on the society. Religiously, Christians believe that homosexuality is a direct contravention of God's commandment that "a man shall leave his parents and cleave to his wife" with whom he shall multiply in order to replenish the earth.
Probably, conscious of the illegal nature of their amorous affair and the implication that they may be sentenced to jail, Ogudu and his 'darling' played some games with some smart alec who, apparently not aware of the law, seemed to have compromised and let them off the hook without the knowledge of the Investigating Police Officer (IPO) and the District crime Officer (DCO).
It is instructive that the ugly trend of homosexuality has been adding to the list of social vices that Christians and government functionaries have had to contend with, especially with some people masquerading as gay rights activists in the country.
A gay rights group, only last week, appeared at the fourth national conference on Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) in Abuja and called on fellow countrymen to recognize and protect minority rights, arguing that even gays have rights that deserve to be protected by legal instruments.
Ogudu Emmanuel and his 'accomplice' may be in the know that, in Nigeria, homosexual practice carries a 14-year jail sentence under federal law, and knowing the threat by the IPO that their matter would be taken to court where it would be determined whether or not they were guilty of a sexual or criminal offence.
In addition to the express statute of the federal law, homosexuality has attracted special attention in the Sharia Code of Justice, which is applicable in twelve Muslim states of the Northern part of Nigeria. The punishment for gays there is to be stoned to death. Will Emma and Tevin face the face the music? This is the question that police may have to answer.
However, founder of Alliance Rights of Nigeria, a gay welfares group, Mr. Oludare Odumuye, says gays have a right to choose their kind of lovers and that in a democracy, the rights of every one, no matter how small, should be respected.