Same sex prohibition law: We’ll not give up – US

 

ABUJA — The United States government said, yesterday, it would not give up on its opposition to the same sex prohibition law recently signed by President Goodluck Jonathan.

According to the US government, there is still a ray of hope to ensure there is no violation of human rights in the implementation of the law.

US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, Linda Thomas Greenfield, made this known on a live-web chat programme with journalists in African countries.

“US is opposed to the legislation targeted against the gay people and we will continue to press forward to see that it is changed so that those group of people will have freedom to exercise their rights.

”We are of the view that criminalisation against anybody on the basis of their sexual orientation and affiliation is wrong and we will continue to press Nigeria government and the legislators to change the anti-gay law,” Greenfield said.

Speaking on US-Nigeria’s effort towards combating Boko Haram extremism, the assistant secretary said the group had been more daring in carrying out attacks against innocent people in the country, adding that the US was working closely with the Federal Government to bring an end to extremism in the country.

She said:  “There has to be a multi-faceted approach to dealing with extremism and we will continue to work with Nigeria to combat it.

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“Terrorism we know affects the whole of Nigerian people and with our collaboration with Nigerian government we hope to bring an end to it in the country as we will not relent in our effort at fighting it to a finish.”

On the US relationship with African nations generally, she said her government signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the African Union in different areas and hopes to build African capacity to solve crisis within the continent.