PRESS STATEMENT: LAWYERS ALERT CONDEMNS THE PUBLIC PARADE, HUMILIATION AND DEHUMANIZATION OF YOUNG MEN IN RIVERS STATE

Lawyers Alert Condemns the Public Parade, Humiliation, and Dehumanization of Young Men in Port Harcourt, River State.

Lawyers Alert, a leading human rights and public interest law organization in Nigeria committed to advancing sexual and human rights of women, youth, and other marginalized groups, in collaboration with Media Health and Rights Initiative (MHR), a Nigerian non-profit media organization working to expand access to sexual and reproductive health and rights information and services, strongly condemns the recent public parade, humiliation, and dehumanization of young men in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, based on allegations regarding their sexual orientation.

Reports, pictures and videos flying all over social media indicate that at least six young men were publicly paraded, subjected to degrading treatment, and forced to carry placards bearing inscriptions such as “Say No to Gay,” “I will never have sex with a man again,” and other messages deliberately designed to strip them of their dignity and incite hatred, based solely on their alleged sexual orientation. The victims were further coerced into making verbal “confessions” of alleged sexual acts under intimidation, with whips visibly hanging over them.

This incident constitutes jungle justice, mob action, and a gross violation of fundamental human rights, including the rights to dignity, liberty, and freedom from inhuman and degrading treatment, as guaranteed under the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended) and international human rights instruments to which Nigeria is a party.

No individual or group, whether acting in the name of culture, religion, morality, or law, has the authority to arrest, try, shame, or punish people in public. The forced parade of these young men amounts to mob justice, which is a criminal act under Nigerian law.

Lawyers Alert and MHR are particularly alarmed by the sexualized nature of the placards, which were deliberately designed to humiliate, traumatize, and incite public hatred. This is not law enforcement; it is public torture and spectacle violence. Such actions expose victims to lifelong psychological harm, social exclusion, blackmail, extortion, and further violence.

If acts like this are not urgently addressed, Nigeria risks normalizing:

●      Mob violence and jungle justice, where citizens take the law into their own hands;

●      Targeted persecution of perceived minorities, based on suspicion rather than evidence;

●      Erosion of the rule of law, where public shaming replaces due process;

●      Increased hate crimes, including assault, rape, and killings justified by moral panic;

●      Public health setbacks, as fear drives vulnerable populations underground, away from health and support services.

We remind the public and relevant authorities that even where laws are controversial or restrictive, they do not suspend constitutional protections or justify torture, humiliation, or collective punishment. Allegations of any offence must be handled strictly through lawful procedures and competent courts, not through streets, cameras, or mobs.

Lawyers Alert and MHR therefore call for:

1. An immediate and impartial investigation into this incident by the Rivers State Government and security agencies;

2. Identification and prosecution of all individuals involved in the unlawful arrest, parade, and humiliation of these young men; 

3. Public reassurance from authorities that mob justice and hate-based violence will not be tolerated;

4. Protection and psychosocial support for the victims, whose safety and wellbeing are now at serious risk.

   
   

Silence in the face of this atrocity is complicity. Nigeria cannot claim commitment to justice, human dignity, or democracy while allowing public acts of cruelty to flourish unchecked.

Lawyers Alert and MHR stand firmly against all forms of violence, humiliation, and dehumanization. Human rights are not conditional. Dignity is not negotiable. Justice must be upheld for everyone.