Storm As Police Warn Nigerians Of 2-Year Prison Term For Adultery

Controversy was raging at the weekend after a serving Nigerian Police officer, Aliyu Giwa gave out a warning that adultery remains a criminal act attracting up to two years of prison sentence.

Aliyu Giwa’s warning was met with shock and mockery on twitter with many Nigerians taking different positions on the issue.

He tweeted: “Do you know? Adultery is a crime liable to 2 years imprisonment! The ‘PENAL CODE LAW’ section 387 & 388 state: 387. Adultery by a man 388.

“Adultery by a Woman Whoever, being a man/woman subject to any customary law in which extra-marital sexual inter-course is recognised as a criminal offence, has sexual intercourse with a person who is not and whom he knows or has reason to believe is not his wife/husband, such sexual intercourse not amounting to the offence of rape, is guilty of the offence of adultery and shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to two years or with a fine or with both.”

GreenWhiteGreen GWG reports that the post has generated tons of reactions with some using the post to make fun.

Chinedu Ogbunyiba @ChineduOgbunyi1

Haaaaaaaa, cell go full, prison go full, court go full… The numbers arrr crazy… You will be looking at over 20million Nigerian men      

Enoch Osaji-Okai @OkaiReddd replying to Chinedu above said that the number of guilty Nigerians could indeed be more than 10 million

Or 30 million women. In a recent research by durex it was found that Nigerian women are the most unfaithful and are more likely to cheat on their partner.

Adephunmie @OAAdejumo

It’s hard to prove cos no witness would want to come to court to say an act he engages in secret is criminal in mature. A case of such was won cos the defendant admitted to the fact that adultery is a criminal offence under their customary law and that he is bound by it.

Ovie @nicklausfx on his part asked what of sexual contact between unmarried persons asking for which he was promptly warned that he could get up to 100 strokes of the cane.

What about fornication ??

Ibrahim M Umar @IbrahimAl_deneb

Nick u go chop 100 strokes of cane in public. Better behave ya sef     

Elda @GoldMyrrhFranki

Ah! If this were to be enforced, at least 95% of men will be in various prisons while about 75% of women will be in prison but of course, our law enforcement agencies are useless.   

Following clarification that it was only applicable in the penal code which operates in Northern Nigeria and not in the South, @donaldnihio taunted that he is a Mechanic and that only panel beaters would be affected by the law

Thank God is a PANEL code, it only affects the Panel Beater’s. We the Mechanics can continue to screw the nuts. Don’t forget to apply oil, some bolts are stiff due to neglect. God help our hustle

Based on the clarification that the law only applied in Northern Nigeria, Qw6zww @georgeleks asked Nigerians living in the Lekki area of Lagos to calm that they could not be reached by the adultery law as raised by the police officer. The twitter user said:

Those in Lekki axis, don’t panic just be calming down, the penal code doesn’t operate in your area.

Meanwhile, very few Nigerians are known to have been prosecuted based on the adultery law.

Send Us A Press Statement Advertise With Us Contact Us

 And For More Nigerian News Visit GWG.NG