MURIC Drags INEC Chairman to NASS Over Genocide Article

MURIC Drags INEC Chairman to NASS Over Genocide Article

The Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) has taken its demand for the removal of the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Joash Amupitan, to the National Assembly, intensifying pressure over a controversial publication linked to the electoral chief.

MURIC, alongside some Islamic organisations, is seeking Amupitan’s removal over his authorship of an 80-page legal brief addressing alleged genocide against Christians in Nigeria.

In a statement issued on Wednesday, the Executive Director of MURIC, Ishaq Akintola, said the group decided to approach the National Assembly after months of appeals to the presidency yielded no response.

According to him, three months after Islamic groups began calling for Amupitan’s removal, the INEC chairman remains in office, a situation he said has raised concerns among members of the Muslim community.

Akintola alleged that the federal government had not shown sufficient interest in addressing the complaints raised by Islamic organisations regarding the publication.

He claimed that the electoral chief had made what he described as unfounded allegations against Nigerian Muslims before an American audience, a development the group believes could affect public confidence in his neutrality.

The MURIC leader questioned the government’s commitment to fairness, arguing that authorities appeared more responsive to what he described as trivial demands than to complaints backed by evidence from Islamic organisations.

The organisation warned that allowing Amupitan to remain in office could undermine confidence in the electoral process ahead of the 2027 general elections.

“Since the presidency appears uninterested in listening to the complaints of Muslims against Amupitan, we must take his case to the court of the people’s representatives, the National Assembly,” Akintola said.

He maintained that the group’s demand was not based on the INEC chairman’s religious background but on what he described as a disposition that could compromise impartiality in the conduct of elections.

Akintola urged lawmakers in both chambers of the National Assembly to examine the matter, stressing that Muslims, as citizens and taxpayers, deserve to have their concerns addressed.

MURIC also reiterated its position that Amupitan should not serve as the nation’s electoral umpire during the 2027 general elections.

Amupitan was listed as a contributor to the 2020 publication titled “Nigeria’s Silent Slaughter: Genocide in Nigeria and the Implications for the International Community,” released by the International Committee on Nigeria (ICON) and the International Organisation on Peace-building and Social Justice (PSJ).

In the publication, the INEC chairman authored an 80-page chapter titled Legal Brief: Genocide in Nigeria, where he argued that the scale and pattern of killings and displacement of Christians in parts of the country met the threshold for genocide under international law.

The brief also criticised the federal government for what it described as inadequate protection for affected communities and failure to ensure justice for victims.