Jonathan Pardons Bello Magaji, Homosexual Molester, Triggering Fresh Controversy

President Goodluck Jonathan enters the second week of his controversial pardon set to contend with a flurry of new issues and criticism from many who are trying to make sense of his reasoning for letting off former army Major, Bello Magaji, convicted and sentenced to five years jail term for sodomy, another name for homosexuality, by a military Court [General Court Martial] in 1996.
Mr. Magaji, a former military police officer attached to the Lagos Garrison Command, was convicted for serial homosexual intercourse with four students of the Army Cantonment Boys Secondary School in Ojo Cantonment in Lagos. The teenagers were Mohammed, Joseph, Emmanuel, and Isaac, according to court records obtained by PREMIUM TIMES. We are witholding the surnames names of the victims since they were teenagers at the time of the incident. Download full judgment here.
The documents spoke of how Mr. Magaji intoxicated the young men, all from poor background, with alcohol, making them dizzy and then forcing them to have homosexual intercourse. He would then offer them token financial inducement to meet family obligations.
One of the teenagers recalled that: “He said I shouldn’t worry that I should go and bath. After my bath he gave me N1500.00k and said I should give Oscar N500.00k for bringing me. Then when I came out I gave Oscar N500.00k and it remained N1000.00k. Out of the N1000.00k Oscar collected N100.00k and it remained N900.00k. From the N900.00k, I bought things paid small small credit I was owing and bought school uniform for myself.”
Mr. Bello Magaji whose reasons for making the list remains puzzling, was one of about a dozen convicts that earned President Jonathan’s pardon Tuesday after a Council of State meeting in Abuja along with the president’s disgraced former boss, Mr. DSP Alamieyeseigha, a one-time governor in Bayelsa State where the president served as his deputy.
Mr. Magaji’s pardon, coming at a time that legislative and religious institutions in the country are bracing for a stormy confrontation with the local and international gay and lesbian communities is bound to shock many observers of the Jonathan presidency.
In November 2011, the Nigerian Senate passed a stunning anti-gay legislation which criminalizes homosexuality and gay marriage with a 14-year jail term. Although the move drew sharp international rebuke from both western and American political leaders, the Senate President, Mr. David Mark, in February this year, went ahead to defend the move, promising a delighted conference of Catholic bishops that the senate will lead the fight against homosexuality in the country. Mr. Mark was however at the meeting where Mr.Magagi got his pardon but was not on record to have uttered a voice against the move.