Suspected gay man rendered bedridden after mob attack

A 40-year-old man, Mohammed Hakibu has been rendered bedridden for almost a year after he was attacked by an angry mob on suspicion of being gay in 2021.

According to Hakibu when he met some friends who were rumored to be part of the LGBTQ group at an Islamic wedding in February 2021, they hugged and held hands together most of the time, chatting and joining in the merrymaking.

Never did he know that his own friends and neighbors at the event had read other meanings into their show of affection for themselves and had come to a conclusion that Hakibu who even had a serious fiancee was gay and therefore plotted a deadly attack on him at home in order to as they claim, punish him for being a bad Muslim.

He recounts that he was at home one night with his fiancee when an irate group visited them with mayhem, attacked and beat him up mercilessly, rendering him unconscious before they run off.

"They attacked me at my house together with my fiancee and she also sustained head injuries.

"It was late at night when we were even asleep when I heard loud bangs on the door so I went to open it and about 20 fully armed men, many of who were my childhood friends jumped on me without hesitation," the victim narrated in tears.

Surprised by their actions, he demanded an explanation even as they kept beating him before he even got to know they were accusing him of being gay and having gay friends and even sometimes harboring them in his house which is abhorred in their community. He vehemently denied to no avail.

"They used clubs, sticks, and cutlasses to attack me and even broke my legs whiles beating me. It was my fiancee who even in her own bad state, called for help and got a vehicle to convey us to the hospital," Hakibu wailed.

Now a year and a half on, the visibly wounded Hakibu has remained bedridden and yet to get back on his feet, having spent all he has on medication too, without any steady income since he has not opened his petty trading shop at the Madina market in all this time.

"It's sad the way we handle people we accuse of any crime even before verifying in this country, we are too quick to judge people. Even if being gay was a crime and I was one, what they did to me should never be done to anyone, it was horrible," the victim said.

He disclosed that the issue was reported to the police but so far no major thing has happened.