…to avenge for relation’s bi-sexual practice
Almost two years after she was accused of bisexual practice, a woman, Taiwo Oladeji, and her husband, Ayodeji Oladeji, are still being haunted by both family and neighbours because they failed to perform some degrading native rituals, as appeasement for the bisexual practice of the woman.
It is no longer news that same-sex relationships and bisexual acts have no place in the Nigerian society due to its deep-rooted cultural attitudes and far wider reaching legal consequences.
Oladeji’s wife, it was gathered, was caught in the act in 2017 but managed to escape before she could be lynched by an irate mob that gathered in their residence.
In January, this year, however, Oladeji’s family, after having failed to nab Oladeji’s wife to ring her to ‘justice, publicly proclaimed that the embattled man had been disowned.
But the hostility resurfaced about two weeks ago when Oladeji’s mother-in-law in her late 60s, popularly known as Alhaja Gbeleyi Mosunmola Sherifatu, was publicly disgraced, embarrassed and insulted by family members of her daughter’s husband during an unexpected visit. This was metted out to her despite her poor state of health.
The ugly incident happened at about 1:00pm, on Friday September 13, 2019 at her residence in Alasia, Ijanikin, Lagos.
It was observed that about seven members of her son in law’s (Oladeji’s) family with two policemen, suddenly visited her following a suspicious tip that she was shielding her daughter’s husband, son-in-law and grandchildren from facing the consequences of her daughter’s act.
An eyewitness revealed that she was preparing for the Jumat prayer when the people came banging and shouting at her gate to produce her daughter and grandchildren. However, her son, Gbeleyi Olasunkanmi, who was at the scene trying to mediate because of his mother’s health condition, was severely battered, bruised, and almost burnt alive by community members and he was subsequently arrested.
Speaking separately with close neighbours who sought anonymity, she confirmed that the lady in question-Taiwo Oladeji, had not been seen in recent time.
Meanwhile, Oladeji himself has now gone into hiding with members of his family as the police are on the trail of Taiwo, his wife, for committing a bisexual act, which is punishable under the law of Nigeria. Besides, the police are also said to be bent on arresting the husband for aiding and abetting the crime.
Still to the Oladeji family’s trouble, his extended family members have declared that he must produce his wife for ritual cleansing, which according to sources, involve flogging at the native shrine and dancing naked in the market square.
To that extent, Oladeji and his family members have reportedly gone into hiding, for fear of arrest and to escape incurring the wrath of native ritualists.
The spectrum of hatred and discrimination against Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) people and their family members is very wide and pathetic in Nigeria; so we encourage young people to desist from the barbaric act by considering at least the ostracism, stigmatisation and embarrassment faced by their innocent family members, and other extended family relations living in the community.
-Mr Boluwade Adio,
Ijanikin, Lagos
