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The brutal death of two students at a boarding school in Nigeria’s Kano State on July 14 has sparked outrage among local and regional activists.
Dailytrust, a local newspaper, said a handful of students attacked four fellow students they accused of being gay. The incident reportedly happened around midnight at the Government Secondary School Bichi.
The newspaper further reported two of the students who were attacked — Hamza Idris-Tofawa and Umar Yusuf-Dungurawa — died and two others are currently fighting for their lives in the hospital.
Authorities have arrested 11 students. The Kano State government has advised students not to attack their fellow classmates who they suspect are gay, and promised to thoroughly investigate the incident.
A month later, however, Kano State’s government has yet to offer the students’ families any compensation.
Augusta Yaakugh-Shahin, founder and director of Lex Initiative for Rights Advocacy and Development, an LGBTQ rights group, said schools should be safe spaces.
“This is not just school indiscipline, it’s a tragic case of mob violence driven by prejudice,” said Yaakugh-Shahin. “Schools should be safe places, not sites of fear. No child should fear being attacked for who they are, or who others think they might be.”
Bandy Kiki, an LGBTQ activist, said the students’ death is a stark reminder of the risks that LGBTQ Nigerians face.
“The murder of Hamza Idris-Tofawa and Umar Yusuf-Dungurawa is not just a school tragedy, it’s a direct result of a system that dehumanizes LGBTQ+ people,” said Kiki. “While the local authorities in Nigeria have promised an investigation, we must also be honest, without dismantling the prejudice enshrined in law and policy, we will keep seeing violence like this.”
Consensual same-sex sexual relations are prohibited under Nigeria’s Criminal Code Act and the Same Sex Marriage Prohibition Act.
The penal code criminalizes so-called acts of carnal knowledge against the order of nature, gross indecency, same-sex unions, and LGBTQ advocacy with up to 14 years in prison.
In Kano and most other states in northern Nigeria that practice Sharia law, punishments for being LGBTQ or engaging in LGBTQ activities can range from 100 lashes if unmarried to a year in prison. A person who is married or was previously married could face death by stoning.
Kano Gov. Abba Yusuf last year ordered the Kano State Hisbah Corps, which is responsible for the enforcement of Sharia law and promoting moral norms, to crack down on groups promoting LGBTQ rights in the state.
Anietie Ewang, a Nigeria researcher in Human Rights Watch’s Africa Division, said the country’s government should adopt and act on recommendations the U.N. Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review made on Jan. 23 that include upholding LGBTQ rights.
“On LGBT rights, member states called for the repeal of Nigeria’s 2013 SSMPA which criminalizes same-sex relations, the release of people detained based on their sexual orientation or gender identity, and for ending prosecutions on these grounds,” said Ewang. “However, Nigerian authorities including the Minister of Justice have continued to denounce LGBT rights.”
Ewang also said the federal government should take the council’s concerns seriously and begin immediate steps — beyond laws and policies — to rectify them. They include prompt and transparent investigations and prosecutions of human rights abuses.
The National LGBT Media Association represents 13 legacy publications in major markets across the country with a collective readership of more than 400K in print and more than 1 million + online. Learn more here: NationalLGBTMediaAssociation.com.
