By Jungle Journalist Corrspondents
On August 29, 2023, over 100 young men and women of the Nigerian gay community were swooped on by men of the Nigerian police and arrested in Ekpan town, Delta State Nigeria.
Their crime was that they were engaging in an unlawful activity, same sex activities, which, according to Nigerian laws, is a crime.
Despite the fact that some persons have openly claimed to be homosexual in the country, turning celebrities overnight, these handful seem untouchable, with no one daring to question their activities. On the other hand, people of same sex orientation in the country have continued to be brutally attacked, beaten, stripped, sent out of their communities and sometimes get killed by irate members of the society who see the act as an aberration and abomination by African standards.
So, while the likes of Okuneye Idris Olarenwaju better known as Bobrisky, James Brown, the self-styled Princess of Africa and a few others walk around as celebrities in the country, the rest of them, like the ‘Delta 100’ are huddled in hiding, having been forced to completely disappear from public eyes.
One of such actors who have vanished completely is Mr Paul Ehigiamusoe, who was key player at the gay party in Ekpan, Delta State where over 100 members of the gay community were arrested by the police in August 2023.
A notable son of Ekose community, Benin Edo State Nigeria, Paul was a thriving young man living in nearby Delta State until the incident. He was well respected and held in high esteem by members of the Ekose community. But all that changed by that singular incident.
According to his mother, Madam Omo Ehigiamusoe, ‘that was the most devastating news of my life. It’s worse than hearing that your son has died. Paul among homo people?”, she asked in disbelief while speaking with our correspondent who visited the locality for findings.
Paul was not among the over 100 homosexuals who were arrested by men of the Nigerian Police, as he must have fled the scene as soon as they arrived.
The next few days were tortuous for the family, according to information gathered in the community by Jungle-Journalist.Com.
According to reports, Paul was the major target of the law enforcement agencies. Being the best man at the marriage party where others were arrested, his role was capital to the success of the marriage.
So how did he get into trouble since the police had no record of the attendants at the wedding? But they actually had a record!
Jungle-Journalist.Com learnt that a video footage seized by the police exposed the roles Mr Paul Ehigiamusoe played.
“The story was all over the local news houses, radio and television. He was seen kissing the so-called groom very passionately, not once but several times”, a source said.
The source also said that he, along with a few others who were not apprehended earlier were then declared wanted. There was enough evidence to put him behind prison for at least 14 years.
“The boy was a good boy, born into a Christian family. His father and mother served Christ with all their hearts, so what will drive him into such an abominable act?”, asked Iye Ibadan, a respected old lady on the street. She further narrated how the whole community began to avoid the family, treating them like a people who have the leprosy disease.
“I felt sorry for the family. They hid their faces in shame. I was the one who dissuaded his mother from killing herself, such was the height of the shame that boy brought to the family.”
When police stormed his family house in search of him, the family rejected and renounced him, denying knowing anything about him.
But that was not all. His father disowned him, and told anyone who cared to know that the community youths were at standby, to seize and lynch Paul if he ever turns up in the community.
Speaking on the development, Madam Omo Ehigiamusoe whose tears flowed freely while narrating the incident, insisted that their son desecrated the ancestral laws, having committed an unforgivable abomination. He had to be chased out of the land to avoid bringing curses upon the land.
“I loved my son. I know his father also loved him. But we could not allow an abomination in our family. Terrible things will begin to happen if we hadn’t taken a swift and decisive action against him”, she argued, despite her tears.
“Today, our son is lost. Disowning him was the best decision to take. He is dead to us. We have moved on, we have other sons and daughters who are responsible and we console ourselves with their presence”, she further stated.
A pastor in the community who preferred anonymity narrated how the Christian community had gone to the family and asked them to recall their son, forgive him and look for a way to rehabilitate him. According to him, they may have acted too late, as Paul Ehigiamusoe is currently missing. He said even though the family won’t listen to him, he championed a cause to locate the missing young man.
“We have begged the police to release him if they are with him, because we heard that some of the suspects were later arrested. They are insisting he is not with them, but I don’t trust the police. Who knows whether they have killed him?”, he queried.
“Even when we traced the leaders of the Homosexual Community in Nigeria to request if they know of his whereabouts, they told us they have no such name as their member. Apparently, they were scared that we were sent to do an undercover investigation against them and get them into trouble. We didn’t make any progress”, he stated in frustration.
Efforts to reach the Delta State Police Public Relations Officer on the matter proved abortive as he neither picked his call nor responded to text messages sent to him.
Paul’s case is just one in many of such across the most – populated country in black Africa.
Jungle-Journalist.Com reports that just a few days ago, on November 17th, four young men were stripped to their boxers and beaten to pulp. They were dragged out of Benin City, same city Mr Paul Ehigiamusoe was born, with a warning never to return to the town.
A similar incident had also happened in Port Harcourt, Rivers State capital in the same. South-south region of the country in October.
It was worse in August, when in Abuja, the nation’s capital city, a gay man, Area Mama was murdered in cold blood and his body dumped on the streets. The police are yet to take any meaningful action on the incident.
But that’s not all. In April 2020, a Police Officer and his intimate friend were caught stripped naked and beaten to stupor. The incident happened in Umueze Autonomous community, Orlu Imo State.
Local security officers who caught the duo also rubbed charcoal laced with pepper all over their bodies, to increase the torture.
In yet another case, two gays were caught pants down having anal sex in Umuosu area of Aba, Abia State. They were mercilessly beaten and paraded naked in the community.
Going by the fact that gay marriage has been criminalised in Nigeria, they were nearly killed save for the good people around.
In Nigeria, capital punishment is considered a lenient way of handling the crimes of these homosexuals.
Section 214 of the Criminal Code Act on Unnatural Offenses says any person who has “carnal knowledge of any person against the order of nature, or has carnal knowledge of an animal, or permits a male person to have carnal knowledge of him or her against the order of nature, is guilty of a felony” and could face up to 14 years in prison.
In the face of this law, men and women like Ehigiamusoe or the numerous others who have undergone persecution can never have peace of mind.
At the moment, the whereabouts of Mr Paul Ehigiamusoe remains unknown. Is he incarcerated for his involvement in homosexuality? Is he in hiding? Is he even still alive or has he been killed by the authorities or a mob?
For now, no one knows, and obviously no one seems to care about his kind. The Nigerian government has remained adamant against same sex relationships in the country. For instance, popular cross dresser, Okuneye Idris Olarenwaju better known as Bobrisky was jailed for six months earlier this year in Lagos, Nigeria.
The charges against him were not strong enough to earn him a jail term, but what was obvious was that the Nigerian authorities didn’t like him and wanted him out.
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