A Ugandan minister has said that he thinks the country is “tolerant” of gay people because they are not routinely “slaughtered”.

He also went on to say that being gay was “incredible and abominable”, and reiterated that gay Ugandans caught will be “taken to a cell”.

Minister for Ethics and Integrity Simon Lokodo, made the comments in an interview today, following the announcement that President Yoweri Museveni would sign the law earlier this week.

“We are tolerant. That’s what we are saying: we are not slaughtering them,” he said in the video posted to the Independent’s website.

Of the estimated half a million gay Ugandans, he went on: “They can come and be helped to come out of this unfortunate situation… It’s like a drug addict. Drug addiction is not an innate situation, it is acquired. But they can be transformed and become better.”

“So we are saying anybody found committing this incredible and abominable act should be checked and isolated from society.”

Concluding, he said: “If you are found practising it, we shall take you to a cell.”

Earlier today reports emerged that he had said Ugandans would rather “die poor” and give up international aid, than give up a soon-to-be introduced law which further criminalises homosexuality.

The British Department for International Development (DfID) last month confirmed to PinkNews that its policy for giving international aid meant that countries such as Nigeria and Uganda do not directly receive aid, but that it is distributed through companies such as the United Nations Development Programme, the World Bank and other contracted services.

President Barack Obama on Sunday warned Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni not to sign the country’s Anti-Homosexuality Bill.