Nigeria arrests 12 planning 'homosexual' wedding

Nigerian authorities in the northwestern Kano State have arrested what they described as 12 "homosexuals" who were planning to hold a gay wedding ceremony.

"These men were arrested as they planned to hold a wedding among themselves," Sheikh Aminu Daurawa, head of Kano State's Hisbah board police, told reporters.

"They are homosexuals; their acts are against the law," he said.

The board enforces sharia (Islamic law) in Nigerian northern states.

Nigerian law criminalizes homosexuality and gay marriage. Anyone convicted of the crime risks at least 14 years in jail.

Daurawa said the arrests were made on Monday, adding that one suspect - referred to as the "groom" in one of the weddings - remains at large.

Daurawa said the idea for a "gay wedding" had been initiated by one of the suspects, who had "invited his friends from different states for the wedding disguised as a birthday ceremony on social media."

Auwal Samaila, a local resident who witnessed the arrests, said the suspects had been rounded up at the Hills Value recreation area in Dawaki Kudi, some 25km from Kano city.

"I was going home yesterday when I saw some youths running away, but I didn't know what was happening until I saw Hisba men taking people away," Samaila told The Anadolu Agency.

"I later learned they had come to organize a gay marriage. Some of their friends had also come from Maiduguri and other states to witness it," he said.

In 2014, an Upper Sharia Court in northeastern Bauchi State arraigned four suspects for engaging in homosexual activities, asserting that such acts violate the Sharia Law that is applied in the state.

Prosecutors told the court at the time that the four had been arrested and charged with criminal conspiracy and sodomy in violation of section 126 and 133 of the 2001 Sharia penal code.

Some of the suspects were later freed for lack of evidence. Others, however, still face trial.