- Mansur Abu Bakr
- BBC – Kano, Nigeria
Hisba Police enforce a strict version of Islamic law in Kano, Northern Nigeria
Islamic police in the main city of Kano in northern Nigeria arrested 19 Muslims, accusing them of attending the wedding of a same-sex couple.
The force’s spokesman, Lawal Ibrahim Vag, said the force raided the wedding ceremony in Kano city after receiving a tip.
He added that the couple, who had not yet finished their wedding ceremony, managed to escape and the police were looking for them.
Most of Kano’s population is Muslim, and an Islamic law system operates alongside secular law.
Same-sex sexual practices are illegal in both legal systems throughout Nigeria, with the north predominantly Muslim and the population majority Christian in the south.
Kano’s Islamic Police Force is known as Hisba and enforces strict moral codes.
Mr Fagg told the BBC that police had no intention of punishing the 15 men and four women invited to the wedding who were arrested during a raid on Sunday.
Instead the group – which he said included gay men and transvestites – were given “counseling” and their parents or guardians were invited to join.
“We will explore avenues for change before taking the charges against them to court. We first counsel them, involve their parents and hope they change their way of life,” said the Hesba police spokesman.
The Islamic courts of Kano have never convicted anyone of homosexuality.
Mr Fagg said 18 people who attended a similar wedding last year were released after signing a document ‘pledging to change their way of life’.
Human rights groups in Nigeria have long called for gay rights to be respected, but there is strong opposition in a country where many Muslims and Christians adhere to conservative religious values.
