Please help free Chidi, an innocent victim of a Nigerian blackmailer

Donated funds will pay expenses of an attorney working for him without pay

Donations are urgently needed to free eight prisoners, including Chidi, whose story is below. For their safety, in this series of articles the prisoners are identified by pseudonyms.
This illustration of Chidi was created by the AI program ChatGPT, based on a description of him provided by reporter Mike Daemon, who visited him at the prison in Port Harourt, Nigeria
Nigerian police arrested a 26-year-old gay man last November after he refused to pay a blackmailer linked to a local gang. Seven months later, he remains incarcerated in the Port Harcourt Maximum Security Custodial Centre, still awaiting trial on homosexuality charges.
(What was his occupation before he was arrested?)
That detainee, known as Chidi, is one of eight prisoners that this site’s Project Not Alone aims to set free this year. Donated funds will be used to pay the expenses of an attorney who will work without pay on Chidi’s behalf.
Before his arrest, Chidi was an apprentice spray painter in a local automobile repair workshop. His troubles began after he was sexually involved with Amadi, a man who turned out to be a member of a local gang.
Chidi had just bought a new phone, and Amadi wanted it. When Chidi refused, Amadi resorted to blackmail, threatening to expose him if he did not comply. When Chidi still did not give up the phone, Amadi arranged for members of the gang to ambush him.
One morning as Chidi was heading to work, Amadi and his gang members attacked him and tried to snatch away his phone.
Alerted by the commotion, a local vigilante group intervened. Amadi immediately told them that Chidi was gay and had been trying to proposition him. The vigilantes seized Chidi’s phone and forced him to unlock it. When they opened the phone, they found private conversations between Chidi and other men, including explicit videos. The vigilante group then handed Chidi and the phone over to the police.
He was held in police custody for two days, then in late November 2025 was formally charged with an “unnatural offence” under Section 214 of Nigeria’s Criminal Code. If convicted, he could be sentenced to as much as 14 years in prison.
Since Chidi is an orphan with no immediate family to provide support, he has been unable to secure legal assistance or meet the conditions required for bail.  To help set Chidi free, Project Not Alone is seeking $1,500 to cover the expenses of court filings, a fine, transportation, prison entry fees for a lawyer and, we hope, therapy for Chidi after his release.
Chidi has remained in detention, awaiting trial, since last fall.
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His physical condition has deteriorated while in the prison, which does not feed imates enough to maintain their health. Members of the local LGBTQ community in Port Harcourt, Nigeria, have bought him some food, but deliveries have been irregular and insufficient to meet his basic needs. He now appears malnourished as well as emotionally distressed.
Please help.

 
Project Not Alone is a program of the non-profit St. Paul’s Foundation for International Reconciliation and its Erasing 76 Crimes news site.  U.S. tax-deductible donations to Project Not Alone 2026 may be made via:

PayPal (for U.S. dollar contributions). For other currencies, send PayPal donations to stpaulsfdr@gmail.com
DonorBox
GoFundMe
Alternatively, you could send a check to St. Paul’s Foundation, c/o Colin Stewart, 5517 Paseo del Lago East Unit 1B, Laguna Woods CA 92637 USA. Please write “Project Not Alone” on the memo line and send an email to info@76crimes.com to let us know it’s coming.

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