A group of Nigerian parliamentarians have backed a petition to criminalize same-sex relationships, although it is not known at this stage whether the issue will be formally debated in Parliament.
According to information reported by the British television network BBC, the parliamentarians argue that homosexual relations go against the religious beliefs and culture of the population of the country, which is Muslim-majority and has no laws against same-sex relations.
The proposal was presented by MP Nana Djibou Haruna, who argued that it seeks to «protect the rights and interests of the population» and described homosexuality as «a problem that affects society».
The signatories have not specified what kind of punishment they want the possible legislation to contemplate, just a few weeks after a Nigerian court acquitted two young women accused of having a lesbian relationship due to the lack of legislation on the matter.
However, both were sentenced to two years in prison for posting videos on social media showing them naked and allegedly having sex.
To date, there are about 70 countries with legislation criminalizing homosexual relations, almost half of them in Africa, although many of them have begun to work on new laws to end repression against the LGTBI collective.
