A group of Nigerian parliamentarians have backed a petition to criminalize same-sex relationships, although it is not yet known whether the matter will be formally debated in Parliament.
According to information collected by the British television channel BBC, the parliamentarians argue that homosexual relationships go against the religious beliefs and culture of the country’s majority Muslim population and that it does not have laws against relationships between people of the same sex. .
The proposal has been presented by parliamentarian Nana Djibou Haruna, who has maintained that it seeks to “protect the rights and interests of the population” and has described homosexuality as “a problem that affects society.”
The signatories have not specified what type of punishment they want the possible legislation to contemplate, just a few weeks after a Nigerien court acquitted two young women accused of maintaining a lesbian relationship due to the non-existence of legislation on the matter.
However, both were sentenced to two years in prison for posting videos on social networks in which they appeared naked and allegedly having relationships.
To date, there are about 70 countries with laws that criminalize homosexual relationships, almost half of them in Africa, although many of them have begun to work on new laws to end the repression against the LGTBI collective.
