The Nigerian government has threatened to take legal action against the Daily Trust newspaper for falsely reporting that the federal government signed a deal to promote LGBTQ rights in Nigeria.
Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, disclosed this during a press conference on Saturday, July 6, at the National Press Centre in Abuja.
According to Daily Trust, the federal government signed a Samoa agreement that included clauses requiring Nigeria to endorse LGBTQ rights, with a promised U.S.$150 billion in return.
Minister Idris dismissed the report as “baseless and sensational.” He stated that the Federal Government would also file a complaint with the Newspaper Proprietors Association of Nigeria (NPAN) over what he described as the newspaper’s “irresponsible reporting.”
In response, Daily Trust explained that their controversial report was based on the understanding that the Samoa agreement “expanded the definition of gender rights from the traditional male-female to a new norm, captured by the term LGBTQ.” They added, “If the agreement does not aim at promoting such a new orientation, widely accepted in Western countries, then we are wrong in our interpretation. We will readily apologize both to the government and to the public for crying wolf.”
—Ezinwanne Onwuka reports for TruthNigeria from Abuja.
