Lesbian sues CAC for refusing registration

A gay group, Lesbian Equality and Empowerment Initiative has dragged the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) before the Court of Appeal over the Commission’s refusal to register it.

A Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) activist, Pamela Adie, had in 2018 sued the CAC for refusing to register the non-profit organisation but lost the case.

Adie, who served a fresh update on the lawsuit filed before the Court of Appeal, said on social media platform, Twitter that she had filed a notice of appeal on the judgement delivered by the Federal High Court.

She insisted that the refusal of the CAC to register her organization for being offensive is an infringement on her constitutional right to freedom of association.

She wrote: “NOTICE OF APPEAL FILED IN THE CASE OF PAMELA ADIE vs. CAC Background: As some of you may be aware, I applied to register a nonprofit called Lesbian Equality & Empowerment Initiative(LEEI) but was denied by the Nigerian govt. agency, Corporate Affairs Commission(CAC), because it said “Lesbian” was offensive.

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“I felt this was an infringement of my constitutional Right to Freedom of Association. My team and I filed a suit against CAC in 2018 at the Federal High Court, Abuja.

“In the same year, the Honorable court delivered a judgment in favor of CAC and cited the discriminatory Section 4 of the Same S-ex Marriage (Prohibition) Act of 2013 as a reason for denial of my constitutional right to Freedom of Association.

“As law-abiding citizens of this great country, Nigeria, we are pursuing all available legal options and have filed a notice of appeal at the Federal Court of Appeal in Abuja, Nigeria. This marks the beginning of the appeal process.

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