Anti-gay law: Why we won’t sanction Nigeria – UN

The United Nations, yesterday, said it would not relent on its effort to persuade Nigeria to repeal the law that criminalised same sex marriage in the country, even as it adduced reasons why it would not in the meantime, impose any sanction on the nation.

Addressing a press conference at the end of her four days working visit to Nigeria, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, while advocating for adequate protection of the rights of lesbians, gays, bi-sexuals and transgender, LGBT, yesterday, described the same sex marriage law as “draconian and illegal”, saying “the law already appears to be having other dangerous side effects.”

Pillay, who was in the country to appraise human right situations, said the UN would  forthwith hold the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mohammed Bello Adoke, SAN, accountable to his assurances that the same sex marriage law was not in any way intended to criminalise individual sexual orientations.