Nigerian Police are considering charges against 42 men arrested in Lagos on account of their alleged homosexuality, the latest example of the country’s tough stance against the gay community.

In 2014, former president Goodluck Jonathan signed the same-sex marriage prohibition bill, forbidding marriage, same-sex cohabitation and any “public show of same-sex amorous relationship”.

Penalties range from 10 to 14 years in jail and although no one has yet been charged under the law it has stoked fear in Nigeria’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community.

On Saturday, dozens were arrested when police raided a hotel in the Owode-Onirin district of northern Lagos.

Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer, Olarinde Famous-Cole said the command was still profiling them to determine those who were culpable before charging them to court in accordance with the law.

Famous-Cole, an Assistant Superintendent of Police, said some of them were said to be known to the residents as homosexuals and they were taken into custody for further investigation, saying the forty-two men remain in custody.

Gay rights activist, Bisi Alimi, who launched a petition on Twitter demanding they be released, said they were detained at a gathering where counsellors were providing HIV screening tests.