The Commandant of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) in Gombe State, Muhammad Bello, has revealed that 21 persons out of the 76 apprehended at a gay wedding have been confirmed as homosexuals.
Recall that 76 persons were nabbed by operatives of the NSCDC at Duwa Plaza along the Bauchi-Gombe Expressway after they were informed about a planned same-sex wedding.
Bello made the disclosure recently during an interview with The Punch shortly after a meeting by the Reformation Committee, chaired by retired Khadi Baba Liman. He said upon the arrest of the 76, they were scrutinized during the investigation.
According to him, the 21 people confessed to being homosexuals after investigation and added that efforts were on to reform them.
He said: “We identified those who were directly and indirectly involved; fair enough, we decided to bail out those who were not directly involved. One thing significant is that we didn’t impose the statuses on them but rather they identified themselves that they are homosexuals and that they wanted to transfer from being a male to female.
“They exhibited this in so many platforms by showing the desire to change their sexes which is uncalled for and not desirable. Currently, while we were able to come up with 21 of them because previously they were 22 in number, checking them closely, we realised that a child of about 12-13 years was among them; so, we decided to take him out of the midst.”
He revealed that the command approached health agencies to confirm their well-being and noted that there were HIV-positive cases among the suspects.
He said: “We approached the Gombe State AIDS Control Agency to confirm their statuses. We realised that there were some who had contracted HIV. We also took them to the General Hospital to confirm further about other areas now on whether they had other sicknesses only to realise some of them had hepatitis. When they submitted the report, we asked for the typology of the hepatitis to be sure. Then, the result confirmed that some have hepatitis B.”
He affirmed the need to respect human rights and added that the command would continue to respect fundamental human rights.
He said: “What I want the entire world to know is that we are not subjecting them to prison as some are circulating. The most important thing is to opt for a better alternative towards reforming these people to become better human beings. The Gombe NSCDC will not contravene any existing law or any right that they are entitled to. As suspects, they are entitled to protection as enshrined in the law.”
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