The Supreme Council for Shari\u2019ah in Nigeria (SCSN) has called on President Bola Tinubu to immediately reverse the appointment of the newly inaugurated Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC),\u00a0Prof. Joash Ojo Amupitan (SAN), over what it described as his \u201cdivisive and prejudiced\u201d past writings.<\/p>\n
The Council\u2019s demand follows revelations that Prof. Amupitan, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria and legal scholar,\u00a0authored a controversial legal brief in 2020\u00a0describing mass killings in Nigeria as \u201cgenocide\u201d primarily targeting Christians and minority groups.<\/p>\n
Amupitan\u2019s 2020 Legal Brief<\/strong><\/p>\n According to an\u00a0exclusive report by SaharaReporters, Amupitan\u2019s legal brief was published in a 2020 report titled\u00a0\u201cNigeria\u2019s Silent Slaughter\u201d\u00a0by the\u00a0International Committee on Nigeria (ICON), a global advocacy network promoting human rights and religious freedom.<\/p>\n In the document, titled\u00a0\u201cLegal Brief: Genocide in Nigeria \u2013 The Implications for the International Community,\u201d\u00a0Amupitan asserted that Nigeria was witnessing \u201ccrimes under international law, particularly crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide.\u201d<\/p>\n He wrote that \u201cit is a notorious fact that there is perpetration of crimes under international law in Nigeria,\u201d accusing the government of failing to prosecute offenders or protect minority citizens. The brief warned that Nigeria risked repeating \u201cthe Rwandan and Sudanese mistakes\u201d if the world failed to intervene.<\/p>\n Amupitan identified\u00a0Boko Haram\u00a0and\u00a0Fulani herdsmen\u00a0as perpetrators of widespread violence and displacement, accusing successive governments of neglecting their constitutional responsibility to ensure citizens\u2019 security. He further described the victims of the crises as \u201cmainly the Christian population and minority ethnic groups.\u201d<\/p>\n The legal brief also traced the historical roots of Nigeria\u2019s religious conflicts to the\u00a019th-century jihad of Uthman Dan Fodio, which Amupitan described as \u201ca full-blown Islamisation agenda\u201d whose legacy, he claimed, continues to influence modern extremist movements.<\/p>\n Amupitan concluded by urging the\u00a0United Nations and international powers\u00a0to intervene, arguing that the Nigerian government\u2019s inaction made foreign involvement \u201ca moral and legal necessity.\u201d<\/p>\n Shari\u2019ah Council\u2019s Reaction<\/strong><\/p>\n In a strongly worded statement issued on\u00a0Friday, November 7, 2025, the Supreme Council for Shari\u2019ah in Nigeria expressed \u201cdeep disappointment and grave concern\u201d over the revelations, calling Amupitan\u2019s views \u201cprovocative, distorted and bigoted assertions\u201d against Muslims in Northern Nigeria.<\/p>\n \u201cIf indeed Prof. Amupitan authored the said document, his submissions are not only unbecoming of a person of learning but dangerously inimical to the unity, peace, and stability of our country,\u201d the Council said.<\/p>\n The SCSN argued that Amupitan\u2019s characterisation of violence in the North as \u201cChristian genocide\u201d was inaccurate and \u201cdeeply divisive,\u201d insisting that the region\u2019s insecurity is\u00a0multi-dimensional, affecting both Muslims and Christians.<\/p>\n \u201cCredible humanitarian data from independent and international sources reveal that Muslims have suffered more casualties in these conflicts than any other group,\u201d the Council claimed, citing violence across Borno, Zamfara, Katsina, Sokoto, Kebbi, Niger, and Yobe States where \u201cover 90 percent of the victims are Muslims.\u201d<\/p>\n The Council also condemned Amupitan\u2019s linkage of modern insecurity to the 19th-century jihad of Sheikh Uthman Dan Fodio, calling it \u201ca malicious distortion of history and a deliberate insult.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe jihad of Sheikh Uthman was not a war of hatred or extermination,\u201d the statement read. \u201cIt was a spiritual, moral, and social reform movement that restored justice, knowledge, and governance rooted in ethics.\u201d<\/p>\n Call for Removal and Appeal for Calm<\/strong><\/p>\n The SCSN said Amupitan\u2019s writings \u201ccall into serious question his ability to conduct free and fair elections in a multi-religious, multi-ethnic nation,\u201d and urged President Tinubu to\u00a0\u201cimmediately review and reverse his appointment.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cPresiding over Nigeria\u2019s electoral system demands the highest standards of neutrality, fairness, and inclusivity,\u201d the Council said. \u201cBy his own words, Prof. Amupitan has demonstrated a deep-seated prejudice that undermines confidence in his impartiality.\u201d<\/p>\n Despite its strong criticism, the Council appealed for calm among Nigerians across religious divides, urging unity against common national challenges.<\/p>\n \u201cWe urge all Nigerians, Muslims and Christians alike, to reject narratives that seek to pit one faith against another. Our common enemies are injustice, corruption, poverty, and insecurity,\u201d the statement concluded.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Supreme Council for Shari\u2019ah in Nigeria (SCSN) has called on President Bola Tinubu to immediately reverse the appointment of the newly inaugurated Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC),\u00a0Prof. Joash Ojo Amupitan (SAN), over what it described as his \u201cdivisive and prejudiced\u201d past writings. The Council\u2019s demand follows revelations that Prof. Amupitan, a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":95623,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,8],"tags":[7351,483,154,7449,7448,56],"class_list":["post-95910","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-politics","tag-amupitan","tag-election","tag-inec","tag-legal-brief","tag-shariah-council","tag-tinubu"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95910","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=95910"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95910\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/95623"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=95910"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=95910"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=95910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}