On a worrisome note, violence and abuses against LGBT persons are on the increase in Nigeria just as some law enforcement agencies and members of the public are gradually legitimising those abuses against these classes of people in many parts of the country. TAYE ODEWALE writes on a particular case in Abuja.
For clarification, LGBT or GLBT is an acronym that stands for lesbians, gays, bisexual and transgender. It refers to people who are non- heterosexual.
Unlawful as the acts of these categories of citizens may be based on the laws of the land, illegality of actions being taken against them is assuming a worrisome dimension in the form of widespread extortion, mob violence, arbitrary arrest, torture in detention centres, physical and sexual violence, just to mention but a few.
A typical example is the case of a six-year-old Gabriella, the daughter of an alleged lesbian who goes by the name Yetunde in Abuja who is being forcefully prepared for circumcision otherwise known as female genital mutilation just because her mother was said to have been caught in the act by her now-estranged husband in 2016.
This horrendous practice in most communities may be responsible for the constant threats from many estranged in-laws on their daughter in-laws just like the illegal bid of forcefully preventing little Gabriella, through circumcision, from taking her mother’s footsteps of promiscuity.
A witness narrates the ordeal
An eye witness and concerned mother of three, Madam Doshima Dodo, who lives in the same neighborhood and happened to be privy to the happenings in the life of alleged lesbian, Yetunde, recounted the ordeal she has been going through in the hands of her hostile parents in-laws and the communities.
According to her, since Yetunde’s in-laws got a wind of her alleged act of lesbianism, she has been severely beaten and tortured several times to an extent that she was pushed from a hill close to her house in Dawaki area of Abuja in September 2018 where she had gone to hide for her safety during one of the occasion.
“After the terrible fall, I observed that she damaged her spinal disc and her doctor confirmed it through a medical resonance imaging (MRI). I noticed that she could barely walk without pain if she doesn’t wear a lumber corset that was recommended to her by the spine surgeon.
“All efforts to report this case to the police in FCT proved abortive as the policemen in the neighborhood after exploiting the attacked lesbians, advised that she cannot file a criminal complaints against her attackers or else, she will be prosecuted and jailed for engaging in lesbianism.
“A disturbing development that had worsened her predicament particularly is the fear of her innocent six year old daughter (Gabriella) being forcefully taken away for female genital mutilation by her Delta state born parent in-laws,” she disclosed.
She lamented further that another attempt by Yetunde to report the incessant attacks on her at another police station in Abuja also turned against her as the policemen on duty at that time advised her against making any official statement as it may lead to a major problem for her since the country had passed the anti-same sex marriage law.
The policemen in their own show of concern advised her to disappear with her children from the neighborhood in order to prevent further attacks particularly feelers from local Islamic radicals within the neighbourhood who may be planning to give her the ‘Sharia treatment’ of whipping her 20 times with an oil-smeared whip before being possibly stoned to death for committing a homosexual offences.
According to Doshima, in preventing the looming danger, she is pleading with well-meaning Nigerians to come to the rescue of the innocent Gabriella against any forceful female genital mutilation since the poor girl is innocent of any crime and had not violated any laws of the land, saying the sins of a mother or father, by the extant laws in the land, cannot be visited on their children.
“It should be noted that this incident is similar to many others happenings to LGBT across the nation since the passage of the anti-same sex marriage.
“The law has created opportunities for people to engage in homophobic violence without fear of legal consequences, contributing significantly to a climate of impunity for crimes against LGBT persons with many innocent children like Gabriella trapped in-between,” she lamented.
It’s a condemnable act – Individuals speak
As part of the way out, a psychologist from the University of Ibadan, Dr Ayodele Fabunmi, in a paper presentation on the problem recently, said in as much as the extant law against same sex marriage in the country is desirable and very necessary, visiting jungle justice against offenders is bad and barbaric as the act itself is.
Since the problem according to him, is more of a complex and addictive one, those involved should be allowed to face the music of punishments legally provided in the form of specified jail term from which they can get rehabilitated at the end of the day.
“Since the problem is more of self-esteem complex deficiency, it should be better handled for the affected individual at the home front through confidence building.
“In stemming the ugly tide, serious research work is already being carried out to see whether the abolition of single sex schools will be recommended to government at both the state and federal level, since most of the alleged homosexuals or lesbians come from the background of attending single sex schools,” he explained.
However, in his own contribution, an Abuja based legal practitioner and presiding pastor of one of the pentecostal churches in Kubwa, Gaius Osambowen, said the act is ungodly and laws have been passed against it, saying offenders should be made to face full wrath of the law and not any psychological therapy.
“Homosexuality, lesbianism or gay in any form is abominable in the eyes of the Lord and must not be condoned in any way to avoid Nigeria being turned into Sodom and Gomorrah that were completely wiped out by the Almighty God thousands or millions of years ago as clearly stated in the Bible.
“Though as a lawyer, one will not subscribe to jungle justice for such offenders but psychological therapy in anyway should not be considered for them so as not to be seen by the Almighty as accomplice in the ungodly act,” he said.
