The Nigerian Media Is Humanizing A Killer Because The Victim Is a Gay Man
Over the weekend, a video went viral. In the video were two young men, from Anambra, confessing to the murder of a young man who they said was gay. One of these men, nicknamed Utali Ekwensu (on Facebook), had in fact been previously exposed as kito scum. This man (pictured right), who has now been identified as Angus Chukwuebuka Nwankwo, admitted that the victim propositioned him on Facebook, and after encouraging him to come visit him in Anambra from Owerri, with a transactional agreement of 20,000 naira for the sex, the victim eventually made the trip to Nanka, Anambra State, which ultimately ended in his murder. Angus Chukwuebuka Nwankwo and his cohort, Chidiebere Omeyi (pictured left), beat him up, eventually killing him, and dumped his body in a bush.
The video of this confession going viral has since led to the trending hashtag on Twitter #EndHomophobiaInNigeria, which created an avenue for queer Nigerians and allies to speak to the pain of living gay in Nigeria and to decry the horrors of homophobia.
However, the mainstream media seem to be writing a different narrative of this horrible incident.
The Guardian led with a headline that reads “Man Kills Facebook Friend For ‘Sodomizing’ Him With 20,000” – a headline that frames the killer as the victim. The headline not only makes 20,000 naira out to be some sort of dildo or a wad of cash that the victim shoved up the rectum of his murderer, but it introduces the word “sodomizing” as though there is a justification for the killer doing what he confessed to. It implies that the victim (who is curiously as-yet unnamed) actually did something to violate these murderers before they killed him.
In the report itself, the Guardian goes on to paint a picture of repentance on the part of the killers by saying that the “suspect denied dumping him in the bush but said he and his brother reported themselves to a vigilante group, which took them to the Special Anti Robbery Squad (SARS) in Nanka, as there was no police station in the area.”
Of course, this had to be said, because if there is anything Nigerians love to do maybe a little more than hating homosexuals, it is forgiving murderers and rapists and all sorts of violent criminals who have shown sufficient contrition.
The Guardian report also talks about how the suspect is “not a homosexual but into comedy and music as well as learning plumbing work in Lagos.”
This is basically a PR job that is asking the question: ‘How can you punish this upstanding citizen whose contribution to society, apart from killing the gays, is to make people laugh, and who is simply hustling like the rest of you?’
In a copy-and-paste reportage that is characteristic of Nigerian journalism, The Nation basically duplicated the Guardian’s report, except it led with the headline: “Why I ‘Killed’ My Homosexual Facebook Friend, By Suspect.”
The word “killed” is put in quotes, as though to invalidate Nwankwo’s confession, as though to soften the crime and make the reader wonder if perhaps there is more to the story where the victim deserved what he got.
And through all this, as aforementioned, this victim remains unnamed and unidentified. This is curious, seeing as these same media houses were very swift to publicize the identities and names of the 57 men who were arrested in Egbeda for attending a party – a story that was distorted to show that these men were actually attending a gay initiation party. In a context that frames homosexuality as the evil, the Nigerian media is quick to show the readers the faces to hate.
But in a case of homosexuality as the victim, there is no face. No name. No identity. It’s almost as if the agenda is to show that the victim is insignificant because he chose a lifestyle that got him what he deserved.
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14 Comments
Mitch
March 17, 07:21It’s almost as if…?
It’s very clearly what is going on!
The Nigerian media would never cease to be disgusting. This is just the first step towards lobotomizing the public of the memories of the evil that is homophobia. Next step would be the case getting swept under the rug and said killers being released.
Nigerians, with their penchant for moronic forgiveness and lack of accountability, kuku already have all the attention span of fruit flies. Nye fa 2 seconds and fa elofuona ife niile mere nu.
I don’t even have the capacity to can. Or to even be disgusted or angry. I’m just numb.
Black Dynasty
March 17, 09:12Sighs, frankly i expected nothing less. If they had showed any sort of humanity for the victim, then i would have been shocked.
Chibuike
March 17, 10:33In my second year in an all boys Catholic secondary school, about 10 boy’s where humiliated, the kind dehumanisation that questions your very existence. They were kept in an empty iron water tank, and then were marked with hot electric pressing iron placed on their chest one after the other, This was done by a seminarian who would go on to become a priest few years after that very event. Of course the parents of the affected children wouldn’t even consider silence as a response to that level of inhumane act, not even when the perpetrator in question is God himself, perhaps the knowledge of why they were treated that way weighed more than whatever emotional trauma their ward might be subjected to. What am I driving at, any crime is justifiable as long as it’s against the “evil” homosexuality, that’s the reality of our society in Nigeria, maybe if some are allowed to choose, a convicted criminal as a son is a fair price against any homosexual child, I think most Nigerian’s are just hardwired with unimaginable hatred against LGBTQ community that any crime might as well be no crime at all, as long as it’s against the greater evil “LGBTQ”
Higwe
March 17, 13:49This was done by a seminarian who would go on to become a priest few years after that very event*
And here lies the very big beginning of man’s problem.
Religion !
Rudy
March 17, 11:04The direct result of an in humane law. These morons feel bolstered thanks to the current sadistic laws against gay people and will always feel a sense of entitlement to hurt and maim us unless this law is fought against and scraped.
As for the disgraceful media, the least said about them, the better!
JC
March 17, 13:23Covid-19 should alter itself and wipe them off the face of the earth!!!
Hypocrites!!!
Brood of vipers!!!
???
bamidele
March 17, 13:27I think this case is beyond being gay. The problem concerns power relations plaguing Nigerian social relations. You get justice only with prior connections and financial power. Have we heard of any children of the so called Nigerian big men arrest, or hurt for any crime; even those we know that some of these elite children are also homosexuals. Otherwise, why would a whole human being be impunity with impunity. Unfortunately, as the pedagogy of the oppressed states, the middle classed and the poor masses are turned against one another, in the name of abominable sexual orientation, among other cases… and people, especially, the media get biased by it. Terrible!
Seth
March 18, 09:10See Richard Akuson. He’s from an influential home. Still didn’t stop him being victimised.
bamidele
March 17, 13:31We keep fighting Boko Haram for murdering people based on religious fanatism. Whereas, an average Nigerian, pastor, imam, etc, will rather have another person dead, simply because of contracting opinions, let alone homosexuality. Our humane social system keeps disappearing!
Fred
March 17, 21:56We’ll never know how Uganda and Tanzania got to a point in their respective national history where it became ok to “KILL THE GAYS”. But if this particular case goes unattended despite the presence of numerous NGOs (who should have the support of some foreign sponsors) in this country, then the fate of LGBTQ+ people in Nigeria might follow the same path as the aforementioned SubSahara Africa countries.
Am I a little too hysterical?
Rudy
March 18, 00:44An update on this issue.
I just saw this story on a foreign gay site where it was stated that *Willswaggs* was the name of the victim(might probably be a social media handle of the victim).
They even referenced the Instagram page of KITO diaries on there and I’m just glad this story has gotten the international recognition and outcry it so needed.
Hopefully this story will not be tossed under the rugs like so many others before it have.
Pink Panther
March 18, 01:26What’s the name of the foreign site, do you know?
Francis
March 18, 14:11I think Queerty published it. Saw it in my rss feeds this morning
Rudy
March 18, 17:51There were two foreign based sites that published the news actually.
1. PinkNews.co.uk
2.Queerty
So you can check them out @ Pink Panther.