Gay Lovers Escape Mob Justice As One Flees In Lagos Island

An irate mob armed with planks and other sharp objects came close to lynching two gay lovers apprehended while passionately making out in Lagos State.

The incidence occurred on Friday April 11, 2025 in a busy Lagos Island neighbourhood drawing the anger of residents who beat them thoroughly before handing them to law enforcement agents. One of the lovers was lucky to escape.

Eyewitness who spoke to our Reporters disclosed that an alarm was raised from a concern resident who caught the two middle-aged involved in sexual activity. This sparked the ire of people in the neighbourhood who immediately descended on the two lovers.

According to the source, the beating by angry mob inflicted injuries on the gay lovers. Their anger was aggravated when they made to escape but one of them was apprehended.

The lovers were identified as Adisa Akinloye Alade, 49 and Yusuf Balogun, 48 both of whom had already attracted suspicion of neighbours due to their frequent intimacy. While the whereabouts of the former has been unknown, the latter was handed over to the police to be held in a cell where he would face prosecuted.

Under the Section 21 of the Criminal Code (Penal), people caught involved in same sex are arrested, charged and prosecuted. Same Sex is punishable by death in some states in Nigeria. The campaign against the sexual orientation has heightened homophobia among citizens often degenerating to mob justice. The hatred has prompted many LGBTQ+ persons to live in fear of persecution from the society including family members.

In July, two gay students of Government Secondary Schoool, Bichi were killed. Hamza Idris-Tofawa and Umar Yusuf-Dunguruwa dies while two others were hospitalized.

However, rights movements and human rights activists have remained resolute in their protest against persecution is the most populous country in Africa. Anietie Ewang, a Nigeria researcher in Human Rights Watch’s Africa Division, demanded that the country’s government adopt and act on recommendations the U.N. Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review made on Jan. 23 that include upholding LGBTQ rights.

Ewang said in a report, “On LGBT rights, member states called for the repeal of Nigeria’s 2013 SSMPA which criminalizes same-sex relations, the release of people detained based on their sexual orientation or gender identity, and for ending prosecutions on these grounds. However, Nigerian authorities including the Minister of Justice have continued to denounce LGBT rights.”