“Kito”, the practice of Nigerian mafias to seduce and then blackmail homosexuals

Living in secret as a gay man in Nigeria was dangerous for Mohammed.

He was always careful when planning to meet someone. But one meeting shook his life forever.

This father of three met Jamal on the internet. They were chatting for a while until she finally decided to see him in person. He told her that he had grown fond of him, even trusted him, so one afternoon he met Jamal downtown and then they went to his house.

But it was a fall.

Mohammed was about to take a shower, but once he took off his clothes, a group of men burst in and started beating him and demanding money from him.

Jamal and the other men they filmed him nakedbegging to let him go.

“I couldn’t believe someone I trusted would go so far as to do this to me.”

When the video appeared online, Mohammed said his world collapsed.

He had kept his sexuality a secret. In public he was a married man with a family.

“My Son Saved Me”

With his head covered in a white hood and a mask to hide his identity, Mohammed agreed to talk to the BBC as long as his anonymity was guaranteed.

“I cried, I wanted to commit suicide“, say.

He described the moment when a phone call to his son saved him from an end to everything.

“I called my children, all three. My son told me he loved his father. Even though his father was gay, he had no problem with it.”

“He gave me a reason why he shouldn’t kill me.”

Mohammed at that moment collapsed, took off his white hood, got up, hid his face and began to cry. To relive what happened to him was too painful.

According to a group of activists working with the LGBT community in Nigeria, between 15 and 20 people contact them every week with stories similar to those of Mohammed.

This form of blackmail, in which an LGBT person is imprisoned, is known in the Nigerian gay community as “kito”; the exact origin of the term is unclear.

The BBC Africa Eye team interviewed 21 people about their experiences as victims of “kito”.

“I trust nobody”

Emmanuel (a fictitious name to protect his identity) describes how he started chatting with a friend on the internet, unaware that his friend’s account had been hacked. When he agreed to meet him, he was ambushed by a gang of about five men.

“They made a video with me, and they asked me weird questions. They’d say, ‘What’s the name of the school you went to? Where do you come from? What are your parents names?’ I knew they would use that video to blackmail me. That’s why I gave them false information.”

The band did not post Emmanuel’s video on the internet, but they did. forced to withdraw 500,000 naira (US$1,000). from your bank account and they tortured with an iron.

He holds up his hand to show us the wounds at the base of his thumb. After dividing the money, they let him go.

“I mentally injured. I trust nobody. I just feel insecure.”

14 years in prison

In 2014the ban on same-sex marriage law in nigeriaand a new fine of 14 years in prison for any person who marries or enters into a civil union with a person of the same sex.

The law also criminalizes public displays of affection by same-sex couples and imposes a 10-year prison sentence on those who “directly or indirectly make a public display of a same-sex love affair”.

In addition, gay bars were banned and a 10-year prison sentence was introduced for anyone who registers for, is active in or participates in gay clubs, associations and organizations, including supporters of these groups.

The passage of the law had a broad support, according to some research, and has resulted in Nigeria having some of the strictest laws against homosexuality in Africa. The 12 northern states could already sentence people to death under sharia, or Islamic law, for homosexual acts.

The new law, according to a Human Rights Watch report, “officially allows abuses of the LGBTI community, effectively making a bad situation worse.”

In 2014, there were many media reports of violence and extortion against the LGBT community, and activists say there is a explosion in kito cases.

Filmmaker Uyaiedu Ikpe-Etim, who lives openly as a gay woman in Nigeria, says blackmail against LGBT people has ‘run away’

“Day in and day out, no story appears on the internet. Sometimes there are cases where the person has been lynched to death.”

“And (worst) are the reactions of other Nigerians. It’s almost party time. “Oh great, good, they kill them. They can’t go outside.’ And there’s just no justice.”

Etim says what makes it even more difficult is that victims feel they can’t go to the police for fear of being arrested or even attacked.

“It’s sad, you know?”

She says that the gay community, which is forced to live online, must also be careful there.

“We don’t have the heterosexual privilege of walking up to someone on the street or in a restaurant and saying, for example, ‘Can I have your number?'”

joint work

However, some law enforcement officers are working with activists to stop the racketeers.

BBC Africa Eye contacted a Nigerian Security and Civil Defense Corps (NSCDC) official. He works with a team of activists who pose online as LGBT people looking for a potential partner.

The goal is to trick the blackmailers.

“For me, there is no one above the law in the country. Blackmail is a very serious crime. It’s a very big crime,” he told the BBC on condition of anonymity.

“If someone puts a case on my table about blackmailing a gay person, I look it up. Certainly”.

The victims contact the action team with the names and photos of the blackmailers. In turn, they send the information to the NSCDCs, who begin arresting the criminals.

“Wherever you are, I want to tell you that there are no blackmailer hideouts in Nigeria.”

The problem they face is convincing victims to testify in court. In a country where being gay can land you in jail, few people are honest about their sexuality.

This means that extortionists rarely go to court.

And there is little consolation for the victims.

Many of the people interviewed by BBC Africa Eye have lost his job since the videos of his extortion were uploaded on the internet. some have been driven from their homes, others have been separated from their families. They all struggled with their mental health.

Mohammed, who had even considered taking his own life, is left with a sense of shame that his video is still available online.

“I know you’re still watching the video,” he says.