Authorities in Nigeria announced they have launched an investigation into the suspected murder of a transgender TikToker popularly known as “Abuja Area Mama.” Per BBC, authorities found the 33-year-old’s body on a highway in the capital Abuja. Her injuries also showed she had been beaten and bruised.
Abuja Area Mama was reportedly popular on social media, and she used that platform to share her experiences about being transgender and a sex worker. And though she never shared her full name, she sometimes called herself Ifeanyi.
Just like most African nations, Nigeria is largely conservative, and individuals who don’t conform to what is deemed acceptable are usually ostracized or subjected to abuse. Abuja Area Mama in 2023 also revealed she had been stabbed and was scared she would be killed.
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Nigerian laws bar same-sex relationships and the majority of LGBTQ+ people in the West African nation fear for their lives. Nigerian TikTokers assumed to be gay are also subjected to homophobic online abuse, BBC reported.
Prior to her suspected murder, Abuja Area Mama had taken to Instagram on Wednesday, August 7, to say she was preparing to rendezvous with her boyfriend. Police in a statement said that detectives responded to the place where the 33-year-old’s body was found the following day, adding that “preliminary investigations revealed that the individual was a man fully dressed in female clothing with no means of identification on him.”
Abuja Area Mama was said to be popular on TikTok, and she claimed to be “the number one Abuja cross-dresser and queen of the street.” People took to social media to pay tribute to the 33-year-old after her suspected murder was reported.
“Taking laws into your hand because you don’t like another person’s sexual orientation is the worst form of inhumanity,” Martins Ifijeh, who is a local journalist, said.
