17 Women, 59 Men Arrested at Gay Wedding in Gombe State
More than seventy people have been arrested by Nigerian security forces on charges that they planned and executed a gay wedding ceremony at a party.
The arrests were verified on Monday, but were made on Saturday night in Gombe, a predominately Muslim state in northern Nigeria.
According to Buhari Saad, a spokesman for the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, "we apprehended 76 suspected homosexuals holding a birthday party organised by one of them, who was to wed his male bride at the event."
There were 59 males and 17 females among the accused, and 21 of the males "willfully confessed being gay," he said.
This is the latest in a series of crackdowns against the homosexual community in Nigeria, where same-sex weddings and relationships were criminalised in 2014.
The new law increased the maximum term for similar crimes from 10 to 14 years in prison.
A court discharged 67 persons in August who had been jailed for allegedly attending a gay wedding in Delta state, located south of the country.