Sixty nine suspects arrested on August 27 in Ekpan Community, Uvwie Local Government Area (LGA) of Warri, Delta during a gay wedding ceremony, have finally regained their freedom, though on bail, after spending 41 days behind bars for an offence that was officially outlawed in Nigeria in 2014 under the government of President Goodluck Jonathan.
Ochuko Ohimor, lawyer to the suspects, was quoted as saying on Tuesday in Warri that they were admitted to bail with the sum of N500,000 and two sureties each, who must reside within the Effurun jurisdiction of the Court, adding that the suspects were also ordered to sign an undertaking at the State High Court of Justice, Effurun, in Uvwie LGA, where they were earlier arraigned on September 4.
He said: “The suspects were granted bail at a cost of N500,000 and two sureties each. The sureties must reside within the Effurun jurisdiction,” adding that the relief came after a stiff legal battle in following the objection raised by Vincent Orarumen, the police prosecutor who opposed the bail proposition and the argument of the their lawyers that the case was not a capital offence.
The suspects were taken to court at the instance of the Delta State Commissioner of Police (CP), Wale Abass, after they were nabbed by a crack team of police operatives attached to the Ekpan Division while conducting a gay wedding ceremony which they tagged, “all white party,” and paraded before reporters, where they told their stories of individual involvement in the act.
Orarumen, who had vowed to prosecute them in line with Nigeria’s Anti-Gay Law, which, according to him, prohibits same-sex marriage in the country, had said: “I can guarantee that they will be charged to court. We are not taking it lightly. It is a clear case, though, they are still presumed innocent until proven otherwise by the competent court.”
