⁍ The trial was widely seen as a test case for a law introduced in 2014 that bans same-sex ‘amorous relationships’
The men were arrested in a police raid on a Lagos hotel in the city’s Egbeda district in 2018.
⁍ Police said the men were being initiated into a gay club, but the defendants said they were attending a birthday party.
– A judge in Nigeria has thrown out a case against 47 men accused of “public displays of affection” with members of same-sex “amorous relationships.” Justicewan Aikawa struck out the case Tuesday due to the “lack of diligent prosecution” of the 47 men, who were arrested in a hotel in Lagos last year, reports Reuters. The men were charged under a 2014 law that bans “amorous relationships” between same-sex people and carries a jail term of up to 10 years. The men had said they were attending a birthday party at the hotel, not a gay club.
Source: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-nigeria-lgbt/nigerian-judge-throws-out-case-against-47-men-facing-homosexuality-charge-idUSKBN27C1TZ