A Nigerian citizen, Mr. Teriah Joseph Ebah
has dragged the Federal Government to
court over the anti-ga’y law.
Mr Teriah who described himself as ‘a
happily married man with a son’ filed the suit
with number FHC/ABJ/CS/197/2014, through
his lawyer, Mike Enahoro Ebah asking the
court to declare that the provisions of the
Same Se’x Marriage (Prohibition) Act, 2013,
particularly sections 1 (1) (a) (b), 2 (1) (2)
and 3 violated the fundamental rights of
Nigerian citizens as enshrined and protected
in section 42 (1) (a) (b) and 2 of the 1999
Constitution, as well as articles of the African
Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights
(Ratification and Enforcement) Act, Cap A9,
Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004.
He asked the court to declare the anti-ga’y
law as unconstitutional, null and void, and
also make an order of perpetual injunction
restraining the Federal Government “from
further enforcing the provisions of the Same
Se’x Marriage (Prohibition) Act, 2013,
particularly sections 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 of the
said Act.”
According to him, his close relationship with
Nigerians at home and in the UK had given
him an insight into the worrisome plight and
predicament the anti-ga’y law “has brought
to bear on the citizens.”
President Goodluck Jonathan signed into law
the Same Se’x Marriage (Prohibition) Act,
2013, which criminalised the practice and
this has continued to raise controversies
both locally and internally as many have
condemning it and calling on the Federal
Government to reverse it.
Since the signing of the anti-ga’y law, no
fewer than 32 persons have been arrested
and arraigned in different parts of the
country. Some have even been molested,
stripped nak’ed and paraded.
Nigerians, Do you Agree that this Law should
be Reversed? Drop your Comment.
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