Sixty-nine LGBT suspects who were detained on August 27 at a gay wedding ceremony in Ekpan Community, Uvwie Local Government Area, Delta State, have been freed on bond.
On Tuesday in Warri, the suspects’ attorney, Mr. Ochuko Ohimor, informed the media that each suspect had been granted bail with N500,000 and two sureties.
The sureties must be residents in the court’s Effurun jurisdiction, according to Ohimor.
The defendants, who were previously arraigned on September 4, must sign an undertaking before the State High Court of Justice, Effurun, in the Uvwie LGA, he continued.
“The accused received bail for N500,000 with two sureties for each. Ohimor informed the reporters that the sureties had to be residents of the Effurun jurisdiction.
Vincent Orarumen, the police prosecutor, had contested the bail requirement, but their attorney said that the suspected crime was not a capital charge.
Recalls that on August 29 at the Ekpan Police Station, at the request of Mr. Wale Abass, the Delta State Commissioner of Police (CP), the accused were paraded before reporters.
They were detained while holding a homosexual wedding ceremony that the Ekpan Division’s special team of police officers dubbed the “all white party.”
The CP promised to punish the suspects in accordance with Nigeria’s Anti-Gay Law, which, in his opinion, forbids same-sex unions in the nation, as he paraded the suspects.
“I can assure you that they will face legal charges. We aren’t treating it casually. Although they are still assumed innocent unless proven guilty by the appropriate court, it is a clear case, he added.
