Nigeria | Students beat ‘gay’ classmate to death

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More than a dozen college students have murdered one of their own when they attempted to ‘discipline’ him for being gay.

The Herald reports that 15 students, between the ages of 17 and 19, have been arrested in connection with the murder in the country’s Jigawa State.

Suspecting that their classmate was gay, the group are alleged to have formed a disciplinary committee to “deal with him”.

They are accused of taking the youth into the bush in the early hours of the morning, where they beat him with sticks.

“After the beating, they brought him back to the school, and it was only his lifeless body that was found the following morning,” said Jigawa State Police Command Public Relations Officer, SP Jinjiri Abdu.

The victim was taken to the hospital where he was declared dead. The students, who are from the Government Science and Technical College, in Karkarna, were arrested early last month.

In 2016, Human Rights Watch documented widespread abuses against LGBT people in Nigeria, including extortion, mob violence, arbitrary arrest, torture in detention, and physical and sexual violence.

The country has some of the most repressive anti-LGBT legislation in the world. A 2014 federal law prohibits same-sex marriages and relationships with a penalty of up to 14 years in prison and stipulates 10 years in jail for public displays of same-sex affection as well as 10 years for membership or support of LGBT groups.

Under older colonial-era legislation, anyone found guilty of engaging in homosexual acts can also be jailed for 14 years.

A group of around 40 men are currently standing trial on homosexuality charges in Nigeria, after they were arrested in a raid on a hotel in the state of Lagos.

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