Nigerian Security Arrests 76 'Suspected' LGBTQ+ at Birthday Party, Alleged Gay Wedding

Nigeria's security forces, acting on a "tip," arrested 76 people "suspected" of being LGBTQ+ at a birthday party where a "gay wedding" was supposedly going to take place, CNN reported via Reuters.

"Buhari Saad, the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) spokesperson for the largely Muslim Gombe state, said after receiving a tip off, the agency raided a party on Saturday night [Oct. 21] that was being attended by 'homosexuals and pimps,'" the report detailed.

According to Saad, "59 men had been arrested, including 21 who confessed to being homosexual, and 17 women."

The account added: "The Gombe NSCDC said in a statement that the organizer of the birthday party had also planned to wed another man, who was still at large, before police raided the event."

The raid took place in Northern Nigeria, and followed a similar police action last August in the country's Southern region, where nearly 70 people were taken into custody in a raid on an alleged same-sex wedding. Officials claimed to have video of the marriage ceremony; the detainees were put on display for the media, but some of them said they were not gay and had been attending a fashion show, not a wedding.

A reported 69 detainees from that raid were later released after paying bail of $645 each.

Such arrests are not uncommon in Nigeria. "In 2020, a judge threw out a case against 47 men who faced charges of public display of affection with a member of the same sex after police failed to present some of their witnesses," the New York Daily News reported.

"The men had been arrested in 2018 during a police raid on a hotel in Lagos, Nigeria's most populous city," the Daily News added.

"The anti-gay law in Africa's most populous nation includes a prison term of up to 14 years for those convicted, and bans gay marriage, same-sex relationships, and membership of gay rights groups," the CNN story said.