Sheikh Ahmad Gumi has said government needs to listen to the calls for the removal of Professor Joash AMupitan as the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

MyNigeria reported that the calls are coming from the Shariah Council of Nigeria and the Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) as a result of an article from the past written by Amupitan concerning genocide against Christians at the hands of Islamic militants.

The Shariah Council warned that Muslims would neither recognise nor legitimise any election conducted under Amupitan’s leadership, citing what it described as serious integrity and neutrality concerns.

The President of the Supreme Council for Shari’ah in Nigeria, Sheikh Bashir Umar, made the position known on Tuesday during the Council’s 2026 Annual Pre-Ramadan Lecture and General Assembly in Abuja, themed “Nigeria’s Future: Faith, Justice, and Leadership.”

Umar stated that the Council’s position was founded on what it called the INEC chairman’s dubious background, especially a legal brief he allegedly wrote that claimed there was a Christian genocide in Nigeria — an assertion the Federal Government has consistently denied.

“This is not the first time the Council is taking this position,” Umar said. “In a legal brief he personally sent, he sought to establish the existence of a Christian genocide in Nigeria, a position that is directly at odds with the official stance of the Federal Government, which has categorically stated that no such genocide exists.”

On its part, MURIC said, "In 2020, Professor Joash Amupitan (SAN) published an 80-page Legal Brief titled ‘Legal Brief: Genocide in Nigeria: The Implications for the International Community’.

“The document was commissioned by the International Committee on Nigeria (ICON) and the International Organisation on Peace-building and Social Justice (PSJ), and was later highlighted in the Religious Freedom in the World 2025 report.

“Amupitan’s Legal Brief argued that attacks by Boko Haram and Fulani herdsmen were not merely localised conflicts but formed a ‘coordinated anti-Christian campaign’.

“He clearly stated that crimes against humanity, war crimes, and genocide were being perpetrated in Nigeria.

“Our position, therefore, is that the demand for Amupitan’s immediate removal, resignation, or prosecution is to protect and safeguard the credibility of the 2027 general elections.

“We therefore demand the immediate removal of Amupitan for his glaring partisanship and apparent bias against Nigerian Muslims.”

Reacting, Sheikh Gumi shared on Facebook, "The government needs to listen."


ASA