Court drops charges against suspected Benin gays following an international intervention

                         

A magistrate court in Benin City Nigeria has dropped charges brought forth against two suspected homosexuals.

Paul Frank, 31, and Christian Ejimofor, 22, were both arrested in December 2016 and later charged with conspiracy, unlawful carnal knowledge and stealing.

Prosecutor, O.A. Enebabor had earlier told the court that the accused committed the offences between Dec. 14 and Dec. 17 at Boundary Road, Benin. Enebabor alleged that the accused engaged in unlawful sexual act.

After spending about 50 miserable days abandoned in prison, NoStringsNG.com reports that one Tom Malanga, a US based attorney, intervened and provided support after which, the accused were offered bail which was set close to about N200,000 each.

The money was provided through Mr. Malanga’s associates in Nigeria.

The battle in court was a tough one. At one point, the court-appointed barrister assigned to defend the accused objected to the submission of a video confession on the grounds that it was obtained under duress, as the accused were allegedly beaten by the police. The objection was sustained and the video confession was tossed out and not used as evidence.

Eventually, the charges against the accused were dropped by the police leading to the Magistrate cancelling all further hearings.

On May 30th, the accused Mr. Frank and Mr. Ejimofor regained their freedom as they were both released from prison to go home as free men.

With revelations from Mr. Malanga, the two accused men saw hell in prison, as Mr. Frank was seriously malnourished and ill, and they may have probably died or ended up spending 14 years in prison if not for his intervention in their case.