Four convicted homosexuals have been sentenced by an Upper Sharia Court in Bauchi and they are to get 15 strokes of the cane.
Shehu Adamu, Yusuf A Adamu, Aliyu Dalhatu and Abdulamalik Tanko will also be required to pay a fine of N20, 000 each.
The case was started against 7 suspects caught in the act but only the four named have been duly tried and sentenced.
Nigerian Eye reports:
The four convicts were among the seven arraigned before the Upper
Sharia Court in Anguwan Jaki area of Bauchi Metropolis for the same
offence.
The presiding Judge El-Yakub Aliyu said after the sentence on the
four, there will be a further hearing on the matter of the three other
suspects namely Ibrahim Marafa, Aminu Ibrahim Sadik Usman Sabo and
Hazif Abubakar.
The presiding judge explained that the trial was being done from
public glare because of security reasons.
Explaining the reason behind the sentences meted to the four, Aliyu
explained that the judgement was given on the basis that the suspects
were not caught in the actual commission of the offence.
He said that although Aliyu Dalhatu and Abdullahi Tanko for instance
admitted that they engaged in the act four years ago, they have
repented and had not engaged in it before their arrest by the Hisbah
Commission based on the rumour that they had done it.