A mob armed with wooden clubs and iron bars, screaming that they were going to "cleanse" their neighbourhood of gay people, dragged 14 young men from their beds and assaulted them, human rights activists said yesterday.
Four of the victims were marched to a police station, where they allegedly were kicked and punched by police officers who yelled pejoratives at them, the human rights activists further claimed.
According to the activists, police threatened that the men would be incarcerated for 14 years, the maximum prison sentence under Nigeria's new Same Sex Marriage (Prohibition) Act, dubbed the "Jail the Gays" law.
Activists have warned the law could trigger attacks such as the one perpetrated in the early hours last Thursday in Abuja, the capital of Africa's most populous nation.
Mob justice is common in Nigeria, and civil rights organisations have been warning for years of an increase in community violence and the government's failure to curb acts in which people have been beaten to death for perceived crimes such as theft.
"Since the Same Sex Marriage (Prohibition) Act was signed, we have expressed concern as a friend of Nigeria that it might be used by some to justify violence against Nigerians based on their sexual orientation," the United States Embassy said in a statement Friday.
"Recent attacks in Abuja deepen our concern on this front."
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