Nigerian security forces arrested more than 70 young people who were gathered in a Muslim-majority area of the country with the intention of celebrating a wedding between two men, authorities reported this Monday. A spokesman for the Nigerian Security and Civil Defense Corps (Nscdc) said that members of that paramilitary organization carried out the arrests last Saturday in the northern state of Gombe, at an unspecified location. "We arrested 76 alleged homosexuals... who celebrated a birthday organized by one of them who planned to marry" his partner during the event, said spokesman Buhari Saad. The spokesperson added that 17 of the detained people were women, the AFP news agency reported. In Nigeria, marriage between two people of the same sex is illegal, and Gombe is part of the northern states, with a Muslim majority and where Islamic law governs in parallel with federal and state legislation. In that area, homosexuality is punishable by the death penalty, as stipulated by Sharia, Islamic law, although this penalty is never applied. In 2014, Nigeria passed legislation to outlaw same-sex marriages and promote civil unions. Saad declined to specify whether the detainees will be tried by an Islamic court or by state jurisdiction.