Seventy-six people were arrested for attending a birthday party for gay people in northern Nigeria, the country’s paramilitary agency said on October 23, adding that the organiser had also planned to hold a same-sex wedding, which is illegal.

These are the latest arrests targeting LGBTQ Nigerians after police in August raided a gay wedding in the southern city of Warri in Delta state, and arrested dozens of people. The accused are out on bail.

In Nigeria, like in most parts of Africa, homosexuality is generally viewed as unacceptable, and a 2014 anti-gay law took effect despite international condemnation.

Buhari Saad, the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) spokesperson for the largely Muslim Gombe state, said after receiving a tip-off, the agency raided a party on Saturday night that was being attended by “homosexuals and pimps”.

He said 59 men had been arrested, including 21 who confessed to being homosexual, and 17 women.

The Gombe NSCDC said in a statement that the organiser of the birthday party had also planned to wed another man, who was still at large, before police raided the event.

The anti-gay law in Africa’s most populous nation includes a prison term of up to 14 years for those convicted, and bans gay marriage, same-sex relationships, and membership of gay rights groups.

The case was expected to be heard in the Gombe state High Court on Tuesday, Mr. Saad said.

New Delhi:

Nigerian President Bola Tinubu is all set to visit Delhi to attend the G20 summit, scheduled to take place on September 9 and 10.

According to an official statement released by Special Adviser to the President Chief Ajuri Ngelale, Tinubu will participate in and deliver keynote addresses at both the Nigeria-India Presidential Roundtable and the Nigeria-India Business Conference on the sidelines of the G20 Summit.

The President aims to leverage this platform to attract global capital and promote increased foreign direct investments in key labour-intensive sectors of Nigeria’s economy for job creation and revenue expansion.

Moreover, he will use this opportunity to highlight Nigeria’s attractiveness as an investment destination, specifically outlining his cross-sectoral reform plan as encapsulated by the Renewed Hope Agenda, according to the statement.

The President will also hold bilateral meetings with a cross-section of world leaders from four different continents, representing both G-20 and non–G20 countries. These engagements are geared towards strengthening bilateral economic, trade, and investment partnerships for mutual benefit, as per the statement.

At the G20 Summit, the Nigerian leader is expected to share Nigeria’s perspective on the theme, “One Earth-One Family-One Future,” which speaks to the global unity required to address the challenges facing humanity and the planet.

With its collective contribution of up to 80 per cent of global GDP, 75 per cent of international trade, and housing 60 per cent of the world’s population, the G-20 constitutes a significant economic power bloc of socio-economic opportunity and geo-political stability.

While Nigeria’s membership of the G-20 is desirable, the government has embarked on wide-ranging consultations with a view to ascertaining the benefits and risks of membership.

The Group of Twenty (G20) comprises 19 countries (Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Republic of Korea, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Türkiye, United Kingdom and United States) and the European Union.

India assumed the G20 Presidency on December 1 last year with the theme — ‘One Earth, One Family, One Future’.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu. File.
| Photo Credit: AP

Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu plans to attend the G20 summit in India to try to promote foreign investment in Africa’s largest economy and mobilize global capital to develop infrastructure, his spokesman said on Friday.

Mr. Tinubu has embarked on the country’s boldest reforms in decades, which have been welcomed by investors. However, reforms have brought additional hardship to Nigerians already dealing with a cost of living crisis.

The country’s main unions plan to go on strike next week and an stage an indefinite shutdown later this month.

“The focus of the summit will be heavily predicated on the urgent need to attract foreign direct investment … and to ensure that we are able to mobilize private capital from around the world toward the development of Nigeria’s public infrastructure,” Mr. Tinubu’s spokesman, Ajuri Ngelale said in a statement.

The summit will hold on Sept 9 and 10.

Nigeria wants to encourage investments rather than rely on borrowing to create jobs, its Finance Minister said on Monday, as the new government tries to revive the West African nation.

Mr. Tinubu inherited a struggling economy with record debt, shortages of foreign exchange and fuel, a weak naira currency, inflation at a near two-decade high, skeletal power supplies and falling oil production due to crude theft and underinvestment.

Mr. Ngelale said Mr. Tinubu will meet leaders from Brazil, India, South Korea and Germany on the sidelines of the G20.

Mr. Tinubu also plans to meet Indian executives, including Jindal Steel and Power Company, among others, Mr. Ngelale said.

Airtel Africa, owned by India’s Bharti Airtel, is Nigeria’s third-biggest listed firm.

Mr. Tinubu has called for more U.S. investment in his country after accepting an invitation by U.S. President Joe Biden to meet later this month on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.