Angry neighbours have beaten up a middle-aged man identified as Ndukwe Uchenna Uduma after he was allegedly caught in the act of sodomy by his landlord in his apartment at World Bank Housing Estate in Umuahia, Abia State on Monday.
It was gathered that Ndukwe who was suspected of being gay was being monitored by his landlord Mr Okoro after he saw a particular fair young man visit Mr Ndukwe at ungodly hours.
Speaking with Mr Okoro, he revealed that a door demarcates his bedroom and that of Ndukwe. He only got curious to investigate his tenant’s abominable act due to the wild moaning sound that emanates from Ndukwe’s room most nights. Mr Okoro narrated that his suspicion grew when he recalled that a regular face comes into the compound at night and goes straight to Ndukwe’s apartment.
Asking further how he came to such a suspicious conclusion about Ndukwe’s bisexual status, Mr Okoro said he jokingly asked Ndukwe why is that his friend always visits when it’s almost time to lock the compound gate against the rule of late-night visits to the facility.
According to him, Ndukwe neglected his question and walked passed him. As he pressed further for answers, Ndukwe yelled at him and said “Mr landlord, can you please mind your business, I can’t be you and you can’t be me, all I owe you is the regular payment of your rent.
Narrating further about the suspicious sexual status of Ndukwe, Mr Okoro said; “I wasn’t comfortable with the sound I hear from that room most nights for some days now since Ndukwe started returning late from work. so I decided to peep through the keyhole of the door connecting my apartment and his own, I couldn’t hold back what my eyes saw because his room light was so bright and his door was directly opposite. I screamed loud to the extent that my wife and kids woke up. I kept screaming abomination! until my other tenants came out only to see a young man run out of Ndukwe’s room and headed straight to the gate. As I rushed out to get hold of his accomplice, he was fast enough as a young man to escape. He waved and stop a tricycle which he entered and zoomed off. I walked back to the house to confront Ndukwe, what I got was a snub from him as he slammed his door and tightly locked it.”
Mr Okoro said he called for an emergency meeting with other tenants that night to relay what he witnessed.
An eyewitness who also gave his name as Chinedu narrated how Ndukwe was beaten after he refused to open his door until other Youths in the community interfered as they forced Ndukwe’s door open, dragged him out and beat him until they concluded that he was unconscious.
According to Chinedu, Ndukwe was heard screaming; “what is your business with what I do in my room?” Why are you invading my privacy?” “It is my life, not yours!”
The eyewitness said Ndukwe managed to escape the lynching with bruises on his body after he regained consciousness as the water was poured on him as believed he fainted.
“The youths were still chatting with the landlord as they were exclaiming that such abomination will not continue to exist in our community when Ndukwe narrowly escaped without their notice”.
A report by Candreporters.com correspondent who re-visited the scene revealed that security operatives came around the scene on the night of the incident to maintain peace and order while the landlord was taken by the policemen to the station that night to state what happened.
Efforts to get Ndukwe on phone to hear his side of the story proved abortive as his phone number was not reachable.
The Abia state police public relation officer PPRO, Geoffrey Ogbonna couldn’t be reached for comment as of press time.
Recall that in 2014, Nigeria’s President Goodluck Jonathan signed a bill that criminalises same-sex relationships. The bill ignored western pressure over gay rights and stipulated a penalty of 14 years for defaulters.
