How Blackmailers Lure Gay Nigerians Into Trap Online, Assault And Extort Them Amid Threats To Expose Them – Report
Several Nigerians have been found to be victims of online blackmailers who have subjected them to extortion, physical violence, and kidnapping, BBC Africa Eye investigation reveals.
It was discovered that the blackmailers were taking advantage of the huge shift in LGBT community activities to the internet as a result of the 2014 passage of the toughest anti-homosexuality laws in Africa’s most populous country.
For instance, living as a gay person in Nigeria in secret was risky for Mohammed. He was always cautious when arranging to visit someone, but one arrangement changed his life forever.
Jamal and Mohammed, a father of three met online. They’d been talking for a while when he eventually spoke up. Mohammed made the decision to meet with him in person. He claimed to have gotten fond of him, even trusting him, and that one afternoon he met Jamal in town and returned to his home. However, it was a trap.
Mohammed was preparing to take a shower when he was interrupted by a bunch of men who beat him up and demanded money.
Jamal and the group also filmed Mohammed naked.
“I couldn’t believe that someone I trusted could go to the extent of doing that to me.”
Mohammed said his life fell apart when the video went viral.
He had kept his sexuality hidden; on the outside, he appeared to be a married man with a family.
He agreed to speak to the BBC as long as his anonymity was secured, wearing a white hood over his head and a mask to conceal his identity.
“I was crying. I wanted to kill myself.”
He described the moment when a phone call to his son saved him from ending it all.
“I called my kids, three of them. My son told me he loves his father. Even if his father is queer, he has no issues with that.
“He gave me a reason why I should not [kill myself].”
At this time, Mohammed broke down, yanked off the white hood, stood up, concealed his face, and began to cry. It was too difficult to relive what had occurred to him.
According to a group of activists in Nigeria who work with the LGBT community, 15 to 20 people contact them each week with experiences similar to Mohammed’s.
This type of blackmail, where an LGBT person is entrapped, is known in Nigeria’s gay community as “kito” – the exact origin of the term is unclear. BBC Africa Eye interviewed 21 people in all about their experiences of being “kito’d”.
Emmanuel, not his real name, revealed how he began chatting to a friend online and had no idea his friend’s account had been hacked. When he agreed to meet him, he was ambushed by a group of about five men.
“They made a video of me, and they were asking weird questions. They said: ‘What’s the name of the school you attend? Where are you from? What’s the name of your parents?’ I knew they were going to use that video to blackmail me. So I also gave them wrong information.”
The gang did not post the video online, but they forced him to withdraw N500,000 ($1,000; £860) from his accounts and tortured him with an iron.
He lifts his hand to show the scar that remains at the base of his thumb from the attack. After sharing out the money between them, the gang let him go.
“It hurt me mentally. I don’t trust anybody. I just feel insecure.”
In 2014, Nigeria passed the Same-Sex Marriage (Prohibition) Act, which included a new 14-year prison sentence for anyone discovered to be engaging in a same-sex marriage contract or civil union.
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(SaharaReporters)
