14 Suspected Gay Men Attacked By Mob In Abuja

A mob armed with wooden clubs and iron bars, screaming that they were

going to "cleanse" their neighborhood of gay people, dragged 14 young

men from their beds and assaulted them, human rights activists said

Saturday.

Four of the victims were marched to a police station, where they

allegedly were kicked and punched by police officers who yelled

pejoratives at them, said Ifeanyi Orazulike of the International

Center on Advocacy for the Right to Health.

Police threatened that the men would be incarcerated for 14 years, he

said, the maximum prison sentence under Nigeria's new Same Sex

Marriage (Prohibition) Act, dubbed the "Jail the Gays" law. Activists

have warned the law could trigger attacks such as the one perpetrated

in the early hours of Thursday morning in Abuja, the capital of

Africa's most populous nation.

Mob justice is common in Nigeria and civil rights organizations have

been warning for years of an increase in community violence and the

government's failure to curb acts in which people have been beaten to

death for perceived crimes such as theft.

"Since the Same Sex Marriage (Prohibition) Act was signed, we have

expressed concern as a friend of Nigeria that it might be used by some

to justify violence against Nigerians based on their intimate

orientation," the U.S. Embassy said in a statement Friday. "Recent

attacks in Abuja deepen our concern on this front."

The police spokeswoman for the Federal Capital Territory, Deputy

Superintendent Altine Daniel, said she was unaware of the attack but

would try to get details for The Associated Press.

Orazulike said he got a panicked email from a colleague who said he

was hiding from a mob of 40 people who struck around 1 a.m. Thursday,

going from house to house saying their mission was "to cleanse" the

area of gays. He said they used pieces of wood and iron to beat up 14

young men. Orazulike said he drove from his home at 4 a.m. Thursday to

save the man in Gishiri, a shantytown with mud roads near central

Abuja.

Those attacked are in hiding and too scared to speak to reporters, he

said, recounting their story.

"They were told 'If you come back, we will kill you.'"

The walls of houses where the men lived have been painted with

graffiti declaring "Homosexuals, pack and leave," he said.

The New York-based International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights

Commission condemned the attack and warned, "It is important that

people understand that this kind of violence can happen to anyone and

that the government seems to have abdicated its responsibility to

protect people from violence and impunity."

Orazulike said he went to the police station later Thursday and met

with a senior officer who ordered the four men released because there

was no evidence that they were gay and they had not been caught having

sex.

Four were severely injured and others suffered bruises, he said. They

were treated at his organization's clinic because they were afraid to

go to the hospital.

"They said the police slapped and kicked them and swore at them," he said.

Dorothy Aken'Ova, executive director of Nigeria's International Center

for Reproductive Health and intimate Rights, said she stayed up all

night Wednesday trying to get police and Civil Defense to send

officers to the scene after she got a phone call from a man who was

being attacked.

"Instead of helping them, apparently some of them were arrested," she

told AP. "None of the (law enforcement) agents responded to our

distress calls."

Dozens of allegedly gay people have been arrested since President

Goodluck Jonathan signed the bill into law in January. It not only

forbids gay marriage, which carries a 14-year jail sentence, it makes

it a crime for anyone, straight or homosexual, to hold a meeting of

gays or to advocate human rights for gays. Convicted offenders can be

jailed for up to 10 years.

U.S. President Barack Obama's initiative to promote the rights of

homosexuals has been rebuffed in Africa, where Uganda also is

considering a draconian law carrying penalties of up to life

imprisonment for certain gay acts. Many Africans believe homosexuality

is an evil import from the West.

However, the U.S. ambassador to Nigeria, James F. Entwistle, on a

recent radio program assured Nigerians that the United States would

not be cutting aid because of the new anti-gay law.