₦airaland Forum

9jaRealist:
Thank you Bros!
Only the freedom to steal, rob, embezzle, and kill others is allowed.
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Well, I c reason to ur sarcasm. However, Bob's case still should be handled right now with iron hands now that it's still early. Didn't u c how one of his followers quickly reversed gear yesterday.

Venerable612:
That’s fine, let me educate you.

Now these are restatements of the sections I referred:

Section 231 Criminal code
Any person who-
a. wilfully and without lawful excuse does any indecent act in any public place; or

b. wilfully does any indecent act in any place with intent to insult or offend any person;

is guilty of a misdemeanour, and is liable to imprisonment for two years.

And

Section 4 Police Act. General duties of the police
The police shall be employed for the
a. prevention and detection of crime,
b. the apprehen- sion of offenders,
c. the preservation of law and order,
d. the protection of life and property and
e. the due enforcement of all laws and regulations with which they are directly charged, and
f. shall perform such military duties within or outside Nigeria as may be required of them by, or under the authority of this or any other Act.
[1979 No. 23.]

Now, I don’t know if you are a lawyer or a law student Buh there are what we call rules to interpreting statutes. One of such is what we call Omnibus grounds and General Powers.

We call them omnibus, because almost anything can fit into it. An example of an omnibus provision is Indecent as used in 231 above, and enforcement of Law and Order as used in S. r above.

For 231 - anyone can be accosted, detained, arrested if he commits any indecent act in public, such as gayish acts or untoward dressing (crossdressing). If you don’t know, 3 cross dressers have been arrested and convicted in the court in Nigeria for Crossdressing, not too long ago, I can remember one in 2008: search the story, it’s on BBC. So yes, indecent act covers homosexuality behaviours and crossdressing.

Section 4 is the general powers of the police. The only restriction is that THEY HAVE TO BE CHARHGED by an authority, on complaint by a citizen, or with reasonable excuse- which itself is a wild card. That’s why the Police can do many things in Nigeria and get away with it. The Police has powers to arrest and detain anyone on suspicion of any unlawful act... with or without warrant, depending on the type of offence.

I have said too much already... I leave you with 218.

Section 218.
Any male person who, whether in public or private, commits any act of gross indecency with another male person, or procures another male person to commit any act of gross indecency with him, or attempts to procure the commission of any such act by any male person with himself or with another male person, whether in public or private, is guilty of a felony, and is liable to imprisonment for three years.
The offender cannot be arrested without warrant.

thesicilian:
No one owes anybody any explanation of their sexuality. Otherwise the police would have the authority to stop anyone on the road and demand you to prove that you are not homosexual. Yes we know that Nigeria has anti gay laws and I fully support it, but cross-dressing is not the same as being gay, legally speaking. The police has no right, no authority to arrest or publicly embarrass any citizen simply on the suspicion of being gay.

I have taken the liberty to repost the original post (highlighted as relevant) that we were commenting upon to spare all of us the substantively irrelevant discourse and dissertation. Of course, the police can arrest/apprehend/question anyone reasonable suspected to have commited (or to be committing) a criminal act. What they cannot do (and NO RATIONAL reading of the Police Act or the Criminal Code even remotely suggests it) is to randomly stop random persons on the street and require them to prove their sexual orientation (and let's not even get into the basic concept that the burden actually rests with state to prove a criminal offense beyond a reasonable doubt, and not vice versa).

With all due respect, there's a distinction between the possession of knowledge and the proper APPLICATION of same. The dissertation was entirely IRRELEVANT to the limited discourse at hand. Cheers.
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9jaRealist:
I have taken the liberty to repost the original post (highlighted as relevant) that we were commenting upon to spare all of us the substantively irrelevant discourse and dissertation. Of course, the police can arrest/apprehend/question anyone reasonable suspected to have commited (or to be committing) a criminal act. What they cannot do (and NO RATIONAL reading of the Police Act or the Criminal Code even remotely suggests it) is to randomly stop random persons on the street and require them to prove their sexual orientation (and let's not even get into the basic concept that the burden actually rests with state to prove a criminal offense beyond a reasonable doubt, and not vice versa).

With all due respect, there's a distinction between the possession of knowledge and the proper APPLICATION of same. The dissertation was entirely IRRELEVANT to the limited discourse at hand. Cheers.
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Brother stop all these grammar.

There is no proving anything BRD with arrest. You lots don’t know the slightest about how Law and order works, but will come here throwing tantrums when you are being educated.

When you crossdressing, Police just arrest people and that’s all. They don’t owe you any explaination. You just have to explain why they shouldn’t charge you to court for crossdressing. And as far as Nigeria is concerned, you can’t even prove sexual orientation Cos that is not recognised under Nigerian laws. You are either a male or a female - if you dress otherwise, YOU CAN GET ARRESTED AND CHARGED TO COURT.

Don’t come here to apply your ignorance.

Venerable612:
Brother stop all these grammar.

There is no proving anything BRD with arrest. You lots don’t know the slightest about how Law and order works, but will come here throwing tantrums when you are being educated.

When you crossdressing, Police just arrest people and that’s all. They don’t owe you any explaination. You just have to explain why they shouldn’t charge you to court for crossdressing. And as far as Nigeria is concerned, you can’t even prove sexual orientation Cos that is not recognised under Nigerian laws. You are either a male or a female - if you dress otherwise, YOU CAN GET ARRESTED AND CHARGED TO COURT.

Don’t come here to apply your ignorance.

thesicilian:
No one owes anybody any explanation of their sexuality. Otherwise the police would have the authority to stop anyone on the road and demand you to prove that you are not homosexual. Yes we know that Nigeria has anti gay laws and I fully support it, but cross-dressing is not the same as being gay, legally speaking. The police has no right, no authority to arrest or publicly embarrass any citizen simply on the suspicion of being gay.

With all due respect, I don’t bother to belabor discourse with those who hear but don’t listen...

Your Strawman’s Argument (that Crossdressers can be arrested) might seem clever to you but is IRRELEVANT to the actual point under discussion (yet again highlighted and even underlined for your edification). The point was NEVER that Crossdressers may not be subjected to questioning, but rather that the Police cannot simply go around picking up random folks (not Crossdressers) and compelling them to prove their sexual orientation.

Granted the author painted an extreme scenario but that was exactly the point - and frankly it does not require a law degree to comprehend such basic Plain English. SMH
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