Police Arrests 21 Men With 122 Condoms In Ibadan For Belonging To Gay Cult

Police Arrests 21 Men With 122 Condoms In
Ibadan For Belonging To Gay Cult

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.
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.