Lagos police chief Imohimi Edgal (photo credit:Lagos State Police)
Officers of the Lagos State Police Command have arrested 57 suspected gays for allegedly gathering to conduct initiation rites in the state.
The initiation allegedly took place around 1am on Sunday, August 26, 2018, at a hotel in the Egbeda area of the state.
As stated by the Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Edgal Imohimi, the arrest was based on intelligence from men of the Lagos State Neighbourhood Safety Corps.
Imohimi said on receipt of the information, the Divisional Police Officers of the Shasha and Idimu divisions, were ordered to investigate the claim that some youths would be initiated into a “gay/homos3xual club.”
He said, “The DPOs stormed the venue around 2am. On arrival, young men, numbering over 80, were met in a hall taking different types of drinks, including Tramadol and Shisha laced with substances suspected to be marijuana. As soon as they sighted the police, they ran in different directions. However, the team arrested 57 of them.
“There is something very worrisome about the arrest. Although being a gay contravenes Section 1, sub-section 1 of Same S3x Marriage Act of 2014, it is a threat to the moral fabric of our society. Even though homos3xualism is an offence, arranging elaborate initiation rites for young men as homos3xuals is, to say the least, very worrisome.”
However, the arrested suspects, denied the allegation, saying they were not gays.
They stated that the police did not give them a chance to defend themselves.
The Lagos State Commissioner of Police said all the 57 suspects were being investigated and would be charged to court at the end of investigation.