KANO, Nigeria (AFP) — Religious police have arrested 25 young people accused of organising a gay wedding in socially-conservative northern Nigeria, authorities said Sunday.

The sharia police, known as the Hisbah, stormed an event centre in Kano, the largest city in the predominantly Muslim region, where the alleged wedding was expected to take place, acting on a tip-off from residents, officials said.

Eighteen men and seven women, all in their early 20s — including the pair believed to be getting married — were taken into custody, said Mujaheed Abubakar, deputy head of the Hisbah.

He told reporters that one man was “planning to tie the knot with another young man at the scene of the illegal assembly”, and that an investigation seeking prosecutions would be carried out.

Sharia, the Islamic law code, based on the teachings of the Koran, runs parallel to state and federal justice systems in 12 northern Nigerian states.

Under the local interpretation of it homosexuality is punishable by death, although the sentence has never been enforced.

In 2014 Nigeria passed new federal legislation outlawing same-sex marriages and the promotion of civil unions. Anyone breaking the law can face up to 14 years in prison.

The Hisbah has arrested dozens of people over the years at alleged gay weddings, including in 2022, 2018, 2015 and 2007, but no one has yet been convicted.