Wave of repression against transgendered in Nigeria

Human rights advocates in Nigeria are voicing alarm about recent arrests of transgendered people and of women allegedly wearing "indecent" clothes, saying the arrests signal a deterioration of civil rights. In the mostly Muslim city of Bauchi in northern Nigeria, 18 men were arrested last month while dressed as women. In the country's biggest and traditionally more permissive Christian city, Lagos, scores of women have been arrested in recent weeks for allegedly dressing indecently. "The reports from Bauchi and Lagos are worrying," said Waheed Lawal, an Abuja-based lawyer and member of Civil Rights Congress, a local rights group. "I see a case here of overzealous law enforcement infringing on civil rights." He and other human rights activists warn that state and federal officials are eroding basic civil liberties by re-activating archaic and sometimes defunct laws. In Bauchi police raided a party at a hotel on Aug. 4, claiming that men there were planning a group same-sex wedding. The men were taken to an Islamic court in Bauchi and charged with sodomy–an offense punishable by death under Muslim law. Most of those arrested were held until Aug. 21 after which they were charged with the lesser crime of soliciting homosexual sex which is punishable by one year in jail and 30 lashes. They were all freed on bail later the same day. Lawal expressed similar concerns over the action of police who arrested scores of women in Lagos in August on allegations of either "indecent dressing" or "wandering," a term from a law that was repealed more than a decade ago. Some police still apply the law defunct law wittingly, or unwittingly, civil rights lawyers say. Most of the women arrested were held without charges beyond the two days stipulated under the law and some were allegedly raped, abused and forced to pay bribes.