The men were trying to extort money from their victim by threatening to post naked photos of him online.

In a surprising move, police in Ghana recently protected a gay man from a pair of blackmailers attempting to use his naked photos to extort money from him.

Last week, officers in the capital city of Accra arrested two men for blackmailing the victim for 1,000 cedi (about $240) and threatening to publish the photos if he didn’t pay.

Getty Images

According to the man, he originally made contact with one of the blackmailers through Grindr. After chatting with him for a few hours, he agreed to meet up with him at his house.

When he arrived at the man’s house, he was taken to a back room. A few minutes later, four other men entered the room and locked the door behind them.

The group proceeded to force the man to strip naked, after which point they stole his cellphone and his money. They then took photos of his body and told him they would release them if he didn’t pay up the requested cedi.

The victim was released four hours later and immediately reported the incident to police. Together, they lured the man he met on Grindr to the police station where he and one of his conspirators were arrested for blackmail.

This situation is an all too common one in a country where same-sex sexual activity is still punishable by imprisonment and police often corroborate with blackmailers and assailants.

Just a few weeks ago, two Ghanaian men were arrested for having sex in a hotel room and were forced to pose naked in a series of graphic photographs that were then spread on social media to shame them.