A tip-off received by Nigeria’s intelligence officers led to police raiding a suspected gay wedding ceremony on Saturday in the northern city of Sokoto – a leading centre of Islamic learning, a police spokesman Almustafa Sani has told the BBC Hausa service.

Police were conducting a thorough investigation with a view to charging the two people arrested for being involved in “unnatural” conduct, he added.

Mr Sani said homosexuality was illegal under Nigeria’s secular constitution, and Islamic law which is applied in Sokoto State.

Other people at the ceremony dispersed when police arrived at the venue, he added.

Further investigations showed that many secret gay weddings had been taking place in some parts of the North in spite of strong Islamic presence in the area.

Down in the southern part of the country, several gay marriages had been taking place at designated gay churches especially in the Lagos area.