As a former abuja resident, I will forever be grateful to elrufai for what he did in Abuja a decade ago

Classic pride of Nigerians "I am sorry but....."
That's more of an insult than an apology. No matter what u shouldn't lay your hands on anyone. Imagine Buhari at an event, he sights FFK and orders SSS to bring him and then ordered them to beat him up. Nigeria will erupt. I keep saying we are true reflections of our leaders. Nonsense! I am disappointed at Davido also

Smm

IvyGRush:
Still Wonders How this Young Man would have Parents and they can't caution him to get married and stop giving birth to Bastards.

CAN and MURIC
Please what's your take on this "Baby Mama" that has come to stay in the Movie and Music Industry. What are the kids gotten from these set of people called.
Just Scrolled Up and noticed that there is one called Imade.

Wants to Trade my Ignorance for Knowledge Please.

You Sir/Ma is an IDIOT the one with caps lock.

femi4:
There is no Human right in Religion. Pope is a religious leader and should be talking about the dos and don'ts not human rights

Oh, there is Human Rights. Christianity is all about emulating Christ. And the Basic rule of Life before any is "LOVE OF NEIGHBOUR" ... This rule is the foundation of Human Rights. If you don't know that then you need to ask yourself what kind of Christian are you..... In all Christ did, he treated everyone equally... Especially the societal rejects...... So Yes. Human rights is what Jesus Christ stood for

shekauvsbuhari:
The Bible and its adherents do not force or bully anyone to accept a thing but points the true and right way to a person.U can believe or practice otherwise but its standards will not be changed,shifted or given window dressing to accomodate contrary and wrong views in order to sound politically correct as U and de pope are doing.

I quite agree with you on what the bible upholds... I didn't debate that neither did I try to change whatever is written on this. As someone who is well read. It will be foolish to base arguments on an ancient book that was used to perpetuate all vices known to man... Or a book used as an oppression in Europe during the medeival era and now as a business tool in Africa this 21st century. No, I won't stoop so low. I have mental faculty to think and see issues from all sides. So by all means. Let the bible uphold its standards... And let its followers continue their followeship. I make my argument from current scientific validation and invalidations. Not some book.

shekauvsbuhari:
Madam, stop rationalising sin. Gay is sin according to God. Call it a sin first, then encourage them to repent. Stop all these semantics that give credence to sin and sinners.

Young man/woman. Not everyone one is bound by Religion. The problem with your type is thinking that everyone is religious or guided by the bible. Its a sin to you. No problem with that. But don't force what you call standards on others. That is bullying.
What i put out is clear for anyone. The Bible is a guide. But the law is what condemns. If u read my comment well, you will understand this.

Yall missing the Pope's point. After all the labels and whatever way people identify. The basic thing we all share is our Humanity. And every one should be treated in that regard. Human rights for EVERYONE should be respected. You have no right to physically, emotionally, assault or abuse anyone. When all this labels are removed, Humanity is all we share. In terms of the validity of gay being accepted or not. I will like to look at things from an objective view because I am not bound by ancient views neither am I bound by myopic views, the beauty of education is to have an open mind in "Hard-nut matters". Right now... Religion (Christianity & Islam) condemns it but religion is free will. And so not everyone is bound by it. Some countries have legalised it, others decriminalised it. It is still very subjective depending on the perspective being looked at. Right now scientific research is still inconclusive on if it is genetic. So there is no Validation or Invalidation. So here is my advice. Respect the laws that guide the country you are in. If you feel the law is suppressive. Then we have the judiciary. Challenge the law. If not, respect the law or go to a country that accepts your way of identification. In a matured civil society, the law is what guides and finally protects or condemns you not the Bible or Quran.

I won't be the one to judge anyone cus unless I am in your shoes, I won't know how it hurts. There are so many arguments on Sexuality.... But no agreement yet. For now, All Humans should be respected and treated equally. Human rights is all I stand for. Don't dehumanise anyone because you are not the giver of life. Cus you don't also wanna be dehumanised for your own choices in life. Finally respect people's decisions as far as its 'CONCENSUAL'. If someone says he is gay... Do not feel you have the monopoly of knowledge of it being right or wrong, make your thorough research... Try to understand where the person is coming from, before you make conclusions. If we are rigid, we will lead people to sham marraiges where there is no love just betrayal, kids to suicide and we will end up creating more problems without solving anything. UNDERSTANDING, RESPECT and HUMAN DIGNITY should be the core of our relations with everyone.

PS: I know someone classless will call me gay. I am a married woman with three kids. But when I was a teen(UNILAG). My friend took his life cus of his sexuality. So to an extent. I can relate with the pain of being an outlier. Reason why i take time to.understand people's choices.

looseweight:
The north needs this most

This is not about name calling... Spread d message. All regions are involved.
I am igbo between

The beauty of this election is that there is a statement being made by the people of Nigeria and not the other way round. The power belongs to us..... I hope most of this godfathers and thugs are retired this election. Let them know that WE the People decide not them!

Tonmiwatimmy:
This guy above me what is funny ......I hate guy who laugh too much ....u must be a gay

It is gay not 'a gay' and laughing doesn't define sexuality.

You are welcome

Its very funny that people are lashing out on only Buhari (he also acted stupidly) with so much vitriol when the real culprit is the CJN. A whole head of.the Judiciary. First of all, he didn't declare his assets beacuse obviously he can't describe this sources of wealth. No one screamed Blue murder on something that obvious. Secondly with an authoritarian move, he suspended a meeting that was meant to.act on the CCT's order to suspend him. That move alone is undemocratic, corrupt, selfish and an abuse of power from.a whole CJN because he was trying to delay Justice. No one lost their brains over that. The NBA who should have called him.out on this but they kept mute all because of Partisan politics.

No one brought the internet down. If he had done the right thing, will the Executive have to.step in? This is just Hypocrisy on Steriods!!

Let me tell you the rape of Democracy here, A CJN who has kept a whole body like the NJC hostage, A senate who should.be sitting to.delibrate on national, legislative and budget issues but left their jobs to campaign and also the President for foolishly unsurping the power of an independent body. The anger should be directed at all of them. We should learn to.stop making the same mistakes when we cherry pick with bias on who to call out cus of sentiments that will favour no one. Call all.of them the f*ck out!! Perioood!

Happy Birthday My President �

Okon Abang... Taker of.no bullshit, A judge who fears no one and is quick to justice. I love this guy!.

I have no sympathy for any of this men... You shouldn't either as far as you want the common good of Nigeria regardless party tribe and religion. Poverty knows no class

This is serious tho...

Until Nigerians accept the bitter truth that there are gays, Lesbians and Bi exist and are people like everyone else.. brothers, sisters, cousins, uncles, fathers, mothers etc amongst us and let them be who they really her not forcefully pushing them into hiding. Because guess who suffers. Our daughters and sons. This men because of the hate and the vile will end up marrying our sisters and daughters etc and make them miserable and all worth not. One thing i know is that love is a spectrum that is endless and fluid and people should love ehat naturally comes to them. Before Jesus christ came or whoever, the gays were there and will all be here amongst us. They were there in the Roman Empire etc. We jist need to accept this and learn to tolerate. Don't just assume all boys like girls. Some boys will always like boys and some girls will always like girls. There is no scientific explanation to dispute this or to accept this but it is the reality right now. And no matter the arrest.. the Bible praying and the hatred. This are people like you and I and they will always be part of us.

Gh

The strategy is a good one, to know their strength and weaknesses. Direct primaries is a smart move by APC. Something PDP should learn from

youngest85:
How come her children are so ugly?

No human being is ugly! Beauty depends on the eye of the beholder.

hebenezher:

no no never, I don't judge people based on their achiement or profile. the fact is stated there. okay, wizkid is irresponsible, agreed. but believe me, I have seen strong carrier women ignore their husband's aid and single handedly brought up their kids in distress and pain. what am saying is that, these stupid baby mama can go to any extent to have a child for a celebrity because of the income, that's wrong, that's feeding where you don't labour, that scam, that's thiefry.

Agreed some women are desperate in getting kids for celebrities so as to get money from them. But what of the celebrities or men who take their dick and put into the woman's pussy. where they stupid when they were fucking and depositing the seed. most of the celebrities have to be called out for being irresponsible, they get away with this things because they are popular and the other person carries the whole blame while we know the sex happens between the two of them. people blame women for unwanted pregnancy and the question is does the woman get herself pregnant. wasnt there a man in the picture that bleeped her. In most cases, men are the ones who have the capacity of having children from different women on the other hand most women will pregnant for one man. See wizkid, three different women, see davido, two women, see Tuface, 5 different women. As much as you want to call out Baby mamas as gold diggers, also call out the men because they are the ones who Bleep different women without even thinking about the kids they are bringing in. Men are the ones who need birth control. Most men need to be called out for this bullshit and not women all the time. We train men wrongly in this country.

hebenezher:

Ohh please, you shouldn't judge a one side story, this stupid bitches called baby mama can be really some crazy of a gold digger. do you this stupid girls can go as far as making it their goal and ambition to have a for a celebrity, they would Goa as far as making sure he sex them and make sure it ends up becoming a pregnancy. it's even common around in the society, what the Bleep is that? can't you fucking work and have some self dignity and respect for yourself.. from her right up, it's obvious she's tired up on wizkid's success and happiness(money), it's annoying really

And what are you doing? Not judging? There are clear text exchanges and chats but unfortunately you men will blame women for everything because wizkid is a celebrity.

Noel1:
Weew! see this idio.t calling me names 4 pointing out her idiosyncracy? If I start with u nincompoop, ur vilage dumbos go beg...

So start already, what is your dumb ass waiting for. Idiot!

Noel1:
Hmm! coming 4rm someone who's 'conquered'

See, you can choose to be stupid and take away nothing from my post. Its up to you

See ehnn, OP, you will do yourself good if you start having common sense. LET ME SAY THIS LOUD FOR THOSE AT THE BACK TO HEAR!

SEX IS IMPORTANT BEFORE MARRAIGE!!!!!

Explore with your partner and see if you guys are sexually compatible before you get married, people push this religion slavery mentality, and make people to be unreasonable and end up destroying homes because they took this teaching that was applied to people over 2000years ago. This is 2018! God gave you brain! Use it, the brain is God working for u. don't remain stagnant, u alone have your power not some biblical text.don't let this fools deceive u. This fools are the reason Nigeria is not moving forward. They put fear into u by using the name DEVIL. Don't be afraid, go into the world, explore, be creative, be imaginative, do things out of the ordinary, keep an open mind, and CONQUER. That is how men become GREAT through history!

HAPPY SUNDAAY

I have said it before, journalist are worse than politicians. They are the ones who place the seed of hatred in our mind that the politicians finally germinates

The birthday cake sits in the cooling freezer, white and large and almost royal. A week since 57 gay suspects were rounded up at Kelly Ann Hotel, Egbeda, the cake is still yet to be sliced or tampered with. Evidence preserved. It belongs to Prince and James (surnames withheld), the friends co-celebrating their birthdays at the hotel in which they had lodged in. 23 and 25 now, their respective ages.

I take in details of the hotel premises as the hotel staff puts the cake back in. The swimming pool is close to where we are, but it’s drained of water. The car of the driver who conveyed the party drinks and food to the venue is in the compound. The boot is flung open, showing stainless steel serving pots, coolers, a beer bottle, and disposable food packs. The driver, too, is among the 57 gay suspects arrested by the police.

I walk into the hall, my hands numb from the morning cold. “The crime scene,” a man says to me, standing by a door towards the end of that hall that I didn’t realise was there. I don’t know who he is, and I can’t tell if I’m supposed to find it funny. Though the hall is large and empty, save for stacks of white chairs pushed towards the corners, I feel the claustrophobia closing in as I relive an experience that’s not mine. The crushing mass of bodies, the stampede and the trampling, the capable ones scaling over the hotel’s sharply barbed fence to evade the police and leaving with bodily injuries as souvenirs. I move out of the hall quickly.

“So you are the one that dragged Segalink,” the manager of the hotel finds me outside after I introduce myself. We have a small, awkward laugh about this, more surreal for me because I didn’t expect him to mention my piece on the famous anti-SARS campaigner. And “drag” is so millennial, and it feels right on point coming from this youngish manager.

He tells me that the police invaded the hotel around 2 a.m. that morning, forcing everyone in the hall to kneel down. He was inside and had to rush out when he heard the noise. Working on a “reliable tip” the police received via text message that the birthday party was a gay ‘initiation’ (a term that neither the press who questioned the 57 suspects or the police officers who arrested them are yet to define), the manager informed them that it was nothing of such. “There were girls there and there were guys there,” he recalls, and I notice for the first time that his eyes are somewhat milky, more cloudy in the right than the left. A health condition maybe, but I didn’t press questions.

After the rounding up, the police separated the party attendees that were women from the men, temporarily held them until the women were suddenly instructed to go home. “They said they were looking for hoodlums, cultists and contraband,” the manager adds, and I suddenly realise how the police were desperate to pin something “illegal” on the unwarranted arrests, before going for unfounded homosexuality which usually works, in collusion with the anti-gay law.

There are people idling about in the premises and “Make dem burn all the gay” is the last thing I hear as I leave the hotel, the air shrouded in gloom. I’m in the company of Yomi Aka, a lawyer from The Initiative for Equal Rights (TIERs), the organization that is handling the legal proceedings around the arrest. We are followed by a small crew. We are on our way to the Chief Magistrate Court, Yaba, and my mind goes back to the cake, which the police has failed to account for in their accusations and the public that damned these men conveniently dismissed in their judgement. The question remains unanswered; who brings a lavish birthday cake to a forced or voluntary initiation?

The court is presiding over the case, and the families of the suspects are everywhere, agitated. In the hallway, I luckily meet Prince, open to talk. He tells me that he was in the hotel room with a couple of girls doing their make-up and getting ready for the party when he heard the commotion downstairs. Fearing for their lives, he locked the door until the manager came up to inform them that the coast was clear.

When I ask if the suspects were tortured in prison, he observes a silence and mentions the places where the police took the suspects to, from Idimu prison to Task Force, Oshodi, and back to the prison in Idimu. “At Gbagada prison, I brought food for them and I saw a policeman flogging one of them and asking how much they pay him for being homosexual.”

The suspects are on administrative bail now. Or at least they have been offered the option of administrative bail. A Permanent Voters Card, a recent house rent receipt, a recent PHCN bill, three years tax clearance (a ridiculous requirement considering the vast majority of Lagosians work itinerant jobs and pay tax indirectly through universal taxation methods like VAT), letter of appointment of employment, three sureties per person who have landed property in Lagos – requirements to be eligible to pay a 200,000 Naira bail. These requirements are at best classist and targeted to punish the poor for a system that denies them basic amenities and functioning infrastructure and only bows to the rich or socially connected. Contrary to Segalink’s tweet dated August 29, 2018 where he states that all the accused men have been ‘granted’ bail and implies that the arrested men are free and returned to their families pending a proper investigation, 80% of the accused men are still in custody with their families unable to either meet the bail requirements or raise the financial surety.

“The Nigerian system is too bad,” Mr. Peter laments, a father of one of the suspects who says his son is neither of the things the police are accusing him of. His right arm is cocooned in a plaster cast. His son, 20, was preparing to write an entrance examination for a university on September 6, but will very likely miss it. I sympathise with him, feeling a spectrum of emotions from sadness to anger. The 57 suspects are still in Ikoyi person, no evidence for the allegation of homosexuality, 57 innocent citizens bearing the brunt of a law that cruelly seeks to deny LGBTQ Nigerians their humanity and a legal system that favours the rich and socially connected. As I leave the court with a heavy heart, I think about a lot of things, the most terrifying being the reality we must endure that the Nigerian police can arrest anyone without evidence and frame them for homosexuality again, relying on our collective bigotry to aid them in the obstruction of justice.

[This piece was written by Bernard Dayo and originally published on Ynaija].

http://kitodiaries.com/the-piece-about-how-the-police-framed-the-57-gay-suspects-rounded-up-at-egbeda-for-homosexual-acts/