The Supreme Council for Shari’ah in Nigeria (SCSN) has called on President Bola Tinubu to immediately reverse the appointment of the newly inaugurated Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Chairman, Prof Joash Ojo Amupitan.
The Shari’ah Council’s call on Saturday followed SaharaReporters’ exclusive report that revealed that Professor Amupitan once authored a legal brief in 2020 containing
SaharaReporters had on Thursday exclusively obtained the report titled “Nigeria’s Silent Slaughter” where the Senior Advocate of Nigeria, in his legal brief, called for urgent intervention to stop what he termed “pogrom and attacks against the Christians and minority groups in Nigeria.”
Amupitan, recently appointed by President Bola Tinubu to head the country’s electoral commission, had titled his contribution, “Legal Brief: Genocide in Nigeria – The Implications for the International Community.”
The document — published by the International Committee on Nigeria (ICON), a global advocacy network promoting human rights and religious freedom — was officially signed under Amupitan’s law firm, Prof. Joash Ojo Amupitan (SAN) & Co., Legal Practitioners & Corporate Consultants, with offices in Jos and Abuja.
The Shari’ah council described Amupitan’s legal brief as “provocative, distorted and bigoted assertions” against Muslims in Northern Nigeria.
In a statement issued on Friday, November 7, 2025 (16th Jumada I 1447 AH), the SCSN said it received with “deep disappointment and grave concern” the SaharaReporters investigation alleging that Amupitan’s 2020 legal document characterised Northern violence as “Christian genocide” and linked the insecurity in the North to the 19th-century Jihad of Sheikh Uthman bn Fodio.
The Council said it found such a stance “regrettable and disturbing”, especially from someone “now entrusted with overseeing Nigeria’s democratic integrity.”
The Council described Amupitan’s reported claims as “divisive, sectarian, abusive, and factually inaccurate narratives against a majority faith community.”
It further “categorically debunked the falsehood” contained in his alleged analysis of “Christian genocide,” insisting that the violence ravaging Northern and North-Central Nigeria is multi-dimensional and not a one-sided religious persecution.
“If we strip away the mischievous emotional language and examine the facts objectively, the reality is that the violence in Northern and North-Central Nigeria is complex and multi-dimensional. Both Muslims and Christians have suffered immensely from extremist attacks, banditry, and communal conflicts rooted in accumulated neglect, poverty, and social injustice.”
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