Nigerian Community Banishes Professed Gay, Demolishes Family House, as Police Declares him Wanted

A Nigerian professed Gay, Mr UZOECHI Henry Nzubechukwu, a native of Ahuwa Oboro in Ikwuano Local Government Area of Abia State has been banished from his community for his involvement in same-sex relationship.

This is as the natives have also lynched his partner, identified simply as Obiora, who was unfortunate not to escape as Uzoechi.

Mr Uzoechi, who confirmed that he started the gay life in his younger age during his school days, has been declared wanted by the authorities in his native home.

It was gathered that the incident took place in December, 2023 when Uzoechi, who returned to his village for the usual Christmas holiday reunited with his long time friend, Obiora.

According to eye witness account, both friends had entered into the room unknown to them that a member of the vigilante group who lived closeby was spying on them, when he saw the suspicious move they made, he alerted the youths of the community.
They broke into the house in search of the two men.

However, Uzoechi was lucky and narrowly escape through the back door and fled the village leaving his friend, Obiora, who was beaten to a pulp before the intervention of the security agencies.

Meanwhile, after many search and requests to produce the suspect, Uzoechi, to answer for his alleged abominable crime, the villagers banished his aged mother from the community and demolished their building afterwards. It was also gathered that Obiora could not make it alive even after being rescued by security officials, he was reported to have died in the cause of treatment in the hospital.

On his part, Mr Uzoechi had since fled the country for fear of being killed or imprisoned for alleged violation of the country’s anti-gay law for his involvement in the act.

Same-Sex Marriage Prohibition Act, was enacted in 2014, under the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan. The law criminalizes same-sex marriage and public displays of same-sex relationships with prison sentences of up to 14 and 10 years respectively. It also punishes establishing, supporting, and participating in gay organizations with up to 10 years in prison.

The passage of the law has been followed by widespread reports of mob violence against LGBTQ people.

There have been cases of communities beating up and in most cases lynching gay suspects. Violence against LGBTQ people has not only been perpetrated by private citizens.

The law enforcement agents in Nigeria are also involved in cases of arrest, and detaining of persons accused of Same-Sex relationships.

With the heightened mob violence and police detention targeting LGBTQ individuals, some LGBTQ people in Nigeria have adopted extreme forms of self-censoring to avoid community and police harassment.

LGBTQ individuals avoid associating with other LGBTQ community members, increasing their isolation and, in some cases, eventually compelling them to marry an opposite-sex partner, have children and conform to socially prescribed gender norms.

There is also an increased psychosocial burden on LGBTQ individuals living in Nigeria as a result of the social and legal status of this community.

This psychosocial burden has been conceptualised in the minority stress model, which describes the deleterious health impact of the chronic discrimination that marginalised individuals face due to their stigmatised identities.

As a result, many who could not continue under this pretence are seeking asylum in countries where they can feel comfortable to openly live with their sexual orientation.

In the case of Mr UZOECHI Henry Nzubechukwu, who managed to escape being lynched by angry community youths who traced him to his home town on that faithful day, the villager head and the chiefs have vowed to bring Mr Uzoechi to justice and to cleanse the land which he has defiled.