Fariq Maidguri, 18, and Abba Mohammed, 25, who was not caught, are accused of attempting to hold a ceremony for their relationship. The suspects, most of them teenagers, were arrested by the Islamic state police Hisbah on the outskirts on the northern city of Kano. In the northern Nigerian states, under Sharia law, homosexuality is punishable by death.

“As you can see from their appearance and the way they looked, there is every element of homosexuality in them. We have arrested 12 of them, but Abba Mubammed escaped arrest and maybe we would have arrested more,” Shiekh Aminu Daurawa told newsmen. Faruq Maiduguri however told pressmen that he was only celebrating his birthday, denying the allegations that he was wedding his gay partner. Read More