Senate votes against same-sex marriage

                               

The senate on Tuesday unanimously passed a harmonised Conference Committee report banning same-sex marriage in Nigeria.

Senate President David Mark has therefore called on President Goodluck Jonathan to quickly sign the Bill into law.

Mark said, “We have been under series of attack from different quarters. I think we believe in this Bill. The earlier we sign it into law, the better. We (Nigeria) have many shortcomings, we don’t want to add this one (same-sex marriage) to it”

The Same Sex Bill, 2011 was passed by the Senate on Tuesday, November 29, 2011 and the House of Representatives passed it on Tuesday, July 2, 2013.

However, some differences were noticed in the two versions of the Bill as passed by the two chambers.

This necessitated the setting up of a conference committee in the Senate to reconcile the areas of differences, which appeared essentially in five clauses of the Bill.

Specifically, the Bill passed by the Senate provides for, among others, that  a marriage contract or civil union entered into between persons of same sex by virtue of a certificate issued by a foreign country shall be void in Nigeria.

It also says that a marriage or civil union entered into between persons of same sex shall not be solemnized in any place of worship, either Church or Mosque or any other place whatsoever called in Nigeria but that only a marriage contracted between a man and a woman, either under Islamic Law, Customary Law or the Marriage Act, is recognised as valid in Nigeria.

The Bill also provides that persons that entered into a same-sex marriage or civil union contract committed an offence and will be jointly liable on conviction to a term of 14 years imprisonment each.