There was pandemonium on Saturday, 18th December 2021 when the residents of Iguomo community, in Uhunmwode Local Government Area of Edo state attacked a couple in the area for allegedly engaging in a homos*xual act.
Homos*xuality is generally viewed as unacceptable in Nigeria. The ‘Same-s*x Marriage Prohibition Bill’ allows lengthy prison sentences for those entering into a same-s*x marriage, those witnessing, aiding, or abetting a same-s*x marriage, the operation and support of gay clubs, societies, and organizations, and the public display of same-s*x relationships.
While narrating her experience, Bola Adebayo said: “My partner, Helen Omorogbe, and I were relaxing in our room on Saturday afternoon when we noticed that some members of the community were planning to attack us for allegedly engaging in homos*xual activity. A few minutes later, the mob broke the door of our apartment to gain entry and assaulted us — they threatened to kill us. Sadly, our appeal did not stop the mob from beating us with different kinds of sharp objects. We scampered for safety and later got injured.”
An eyewitness who preferred anonymity said that the angry mob in the community had earlier gone to Omorogbe’s Store located at the New Benin Market, Benin City where they allegedly destroyed goods worth millions of Naira before coming to carrying out another attack on her apartment. The mob later took them to a bushy part of the village where they locked them inside a room in an abandoned building.
Adebayo continued: “The mob did not allow both of us to explain our side of the story, as they were planning to set us ablaze, it was one of the elders at the scene who advised them to hand us over to the law enforcement agencies for prosecution.
“However, we had to forcibly break the back door of the abandoned building and ran away for fear of being burned alive. We knew the consequence of handing us over to the police or to burn us alive; we were afraid because homos*xuality is a criminal and punishable offence in Nigeria,” she concluded.