Joe McConnell
Nigerian police are investigating the death of a Nigerian transgender TikTok user known as “Abuja Area Mama.”
The beaten and bruised body of a 33-year-old transgender woman was found on Thursday along a highway in the capital Abuja, local media reported.
Abuja Area Mama had a loyal fan base on social media, where she posted about her transgender status and life as a sex worker. She never used her full name, sometimes referring to herself as Ifeanyi.
Nigeria is a deeply conservative society, and people who break the norm are often targeted. Last year, the TikToker spoke out about being attacked and fearing for her life.
In Africa’s most populous nation, same-sex relationships are criminalized and many LGBTQ+ Nigerians live in fear.
Even Nigerian TikTokers who are considered gay have become targets of homophobic slurs online.
In his latest Instagram post on WednesdayThe mother from the Abuja area had said she was getting ready to go and visit her boyfriend.
Hours later, his body was found along the Katampe-Mabushi expressway, in Banex area, Wuse II of Abuja, in what is suspected to have been a murder.
A team of detectives responded to the scene Thursday morning and “preliminary investigation revealed the individual to be a male fully dressed in women’s clothing and with no identification on him,” a police statement read.
Abuja police chief Benneth Igweh has since ordered a “thorough and discreet” investigation into the death.
Last September, the TikToker claimed she was stabbed by an unidentified person under unclear circumstances.
On her TikTok profile, she described herself as “Abuja’s number one crossdresser and the queen of the streets.”
She said her posts were meant to reflect her life and educate her followers.
News of his death sparked an outpouring of grief on social media.
Although Nigerian laws guarantee freedom from discrimination and the right to private and family life, mass arrests and detention of members of the LGBTQ+ community are common, especially in the northern states.
“Taking the law into your own hands because you don’t like another person’s sexual orientation is the worst form of inhumanity,” Martins Ifijeh, a local journalist, published on X.
