More than 60 people arrested at a gay wedding in southern Nigeria

By CHINEDU ASADU
Associated Press

ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — Police in Nigeria say they detained at least 67 people celebrating a gay wedding in one of the country’s largest arrests targeting outlawed homosexuality. A police spokesman says the suspects were arrested in southern Delta state’s Ekpan town at about 2 a.m. on Monday at an event where two of them were wedded. He said that homosexuality “will never be tolerated” in the West African nation. Arrests of gay people are common in Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, where the Same Sex Marriage Prohibition Act carries up to 10 years in jail for gay individuals. Accomplices also face 10 years in prison. Enacted in 2013, the law has been condemned locally and internationally though it is also supported by many in the country.