On Aug 12, 12:46?pm, bobandcarole <bobandcarole...@hotmail.com> wrote:

18 face death sentence for homosexual activities in Nigeria

Eighteen men have been arrested in northern Nigeria for alleged
sodomy, which carries the death sentence under Bauchi state's Islamic
sharia law, the official NAN news agency reported Thursday.

Judge Malam Tanimu ordered the 18 remanded in prison until a further
hearing on August 21 following their arrest on Sunday in a hotel in
Bauchi city.

The court on Wednesday heard that the men, who were wearing female
clothing, had come to the city from five neighbouring states to
celebrate a gay "marriage".

Prosecuting police officer Tadius Boboi said the men's actions had
contravened the sharia penal code adopted in Bauchi and other states
in Muslim northern Nigeria eight years ago following the end of
military rule.

In June an agency tasked with implementing sharia law in Bauchi called
on the new state governor to approve three sentences of death by
stoning and 40 of amputation passed since 2002 which his predecessor
had refused to ratify.

The death sentences were passed for sexual offences, including one for
sodomy.

In a Nigerian sharia state the governor must give his approval before
punishments like death and amputation passed by sharia courts are
actually carried out.