Ikeja court remands 14-year old boy and 20-year old man in custody for having gay sex

AN Ikeja family court has remanded a 20-year old man and a 14 year old boy in custody for having homosexual sex un Lagos after they were caught having intercourse by local residents.

As part of Nigeria's ongoing clampdown on homosexuality, Orji Ezeh, 14 and Gideon Harrison, 20, were arrested by police from the Ikotun division for allegedly engaging in gay intercourse. They were arrested after residents who knew what they were doing handed them over to the police.

They were subsequently arrested on Ikotun-Igando Road in the Ikotun suburb of Lagos where the suspects live with their parents. Following their appearance in court, the judge ordered them to be remanded in prison custody pending the fulfilment of the bail conditions which the court granted them.

Trouble started when Mr Harrison attempted to lure another teenager in the area into the act but he refused and then raised an alarm that attracted other residents. Upon their arrest, Master Ezeh who is from Abia State, admitted that he was lured into the act by Mr Harrison from Delta State and they have regularly been having sex.

Mr Harrison told the police that he gives Master Ezeh between N200 (74p) and N300 (£1.11), adding that he was not the only lad he indulges in such act with. Apparently other teenagers in the area have also collected money from him in exchange for sex.

Both suspects were subsequently charged to court for the alleged offence under the Criminal Code, during which Mr Harrison pleaded guilty while Master Ezeh pleaded not guilty. Upon their arraignment, the court granted them bail in the sum of N200,000 (£746) each with two sureties in like sum.

Also, the court ruled that sureties must deposit N200,000 with the chief registrar accounts until the end of the matter. They were remanded in custody pending when they will fulfil their bail condition and the matter was adjourned till November 17.

On January 7 this year, President Goodluck Jonathan signed Nigeria's Draconian Same-Sex Marriage Prohibition Bill, which penalises homosexual activity with 14 years imprisonment, into law. As soon as the law came into effect, police swung into action arresting lesbians and gays across the country, while homophobic vigilante groups also stepped up attacks on suspected victims.