The Supreme Council for Shari’ah in Nigeria, (SCSN), has called on President Bola Tinubu to immediately sack the newly appointed Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Joash Ojo Amupitan, over what it described as a “deeply divisive” legal brief he authored in 2020.
The Council’s demand follows a published exposé revealing that Amupitan, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, wrote a paper titled “Genocide in Nigeria – The Implications for the International Community” for the International Committee on Nigeria (ICON). In the document, he reportedly described attacks in Northern Nigeria as “Christian genocide”.
In a statement signed on Friday, the SCSN said it found Amupitan’s claims “provocative, distorted and bigoted”, accusing him of painting Muslims in a negative light and linking Northern violence to the 19th-century jihad of Sheikh Uthman ɗan Fodio.
“If indeed he authored such a brief, it calls into question his neutrality and fitness to oversee elections in a multi-religious nation,” the Council stated.
The group maintained that the violence in Northern Nigeria affects both Muslims and Christians, citing humanitarian data showing Muslims as the majority of victims. It urged Tinubu to “immediately review and reverse” Amupitan’s appointment to safeguard the credibility of the electoral process.
While condemning the brief, the SCSN also appealed for calm and unity among Nigerians, stressing that “the true enemies of the nation are injustice, corruption, poverty, and insecurity – not religion”.
