Man Sues Federal Government Over Anti-Gay Law.

A Nigerian citizen, Mr. Teriah Joseph Ebah (picture above is not the real image) has dragged the Federal Government to court over the anti-gay law.

Mr Teriah who described himself as 'a happily married man with a son' filed the suit with number FHC/ABJ/CS/197/2014, through his lawyer, Mike Enahoro Ebah asking the court to declare that the provisions of the Same Sex Marriage (Prohibition) Act, 2013, particularly sections 1 (1) (a) (b), 2 (1) (2) and 3 violated the fundamental rights of Nigerian citizens as enshrined and protected in section 42 (1) (a) (b) and 2 of the 1999 Constitution, as well as articles of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (Ratification and Enforcement) Act, Cap A9, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004.

He asked the court to declare the anti-gay law as unconstitutional, null and void, and also make an order of perpetual injunction restraining the Federal Government “from further enforcing the provisions of the Same Sex Marriage (Prohibition) Act, 2013, particularly sections 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 of the said Act.”

According to him, his close relationship with Nigerians at home and in the UK had given him an insight into the worrisome plight and predicament the anti-gay law “has brought to bear on the citizens.”

President Goodluck Jonathan signed into law the Same Sex Marriage (Prohibition) Act, 2013, which criminalised the practice and this has continued to raise controversies both locally and internally as many have condemning it and calling on the Federal Government to reverse it.

Since the signing of the anti-gay law, no fewer than 32 persons have been arrested and arraigned in different parts of the country. Some have even been molested, stripped naked and paraded.