A Tudun Alkali Shari’a Court in Bauchi State on Thursday ordered one Mubarak Ibrahim, 20, to be given 20 strokes of the cane for practising sodomy.
The judge, Malam Nuhu Mohammed, gave the order after Ibrahim confessed that he had once participated in the act. Mohammed also ordered Ibrahim to pay N5,000 as fine.
The convict is among 12 people arrested by the Bauchi State Sharia’a Commission and taken into custody for belonging to gay associations.
Malam Al-Hassan Zakari of the Hisbah Commission said after the judgment that the decision was in accordance with the provisions of both Islamic and Western laws.
According to him, both laws recognise that sodomy is illegal in Nigeria.
“As for the Shari’a law, the provision is that anybody caught in the act should be executed. The convict was not caught in the act but he confessed that he once did it and that is why the punishment is being meted on him. If you check in both the Shari’a and Penal Code, sodomy is illegal,” he said.
He said that although three suspects were arraigned, only Ibrahim was convicted.
The remaining two are in prison custody, pending further investigations.
He said that another nine suspects would be arraigned on Jan. 22 at Unguwar Jaki Shari’a court.