The Supreme Council for Shari’ah in Nigeria (SCSN) has warned that the 2027 general elections will lack legitimacy if conducted under the leadership of the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Joash Amupitan.
The Council said Muslims across the country would neither recognise nor accept the outcome of any election overseen by Amupitan, citing alleged concerns over his integrity and neutrality.
The President of the Council, Sheikh Bashir Umar, stated this on Tuesday in Abuja at the SCSN’s 2026 Annual Pre-Ramadan Lecture and General Assembly, themed “Nigeria’s Future: Faith, Justice, and Leadership.”
Umar said the call for Amupitan’s removal was informed by what the Council described as troubling antecedents linked to the INEC chairman, particularly a legal brief he allegedly authored suggesting the existence of a Christian genocide in Nigeria - a claim consistently denied by the Federal Government.
According to Umar, the position taken in the brief raised fundamental questions about Amupitan’s suitability to head a body constitutionally required to be neutral and impartial.
“For an electoral umpire, integrity and neutrality are non-negotiable,” Umar said. “Once these are in doubt, public confidence in the process collapses. As far as we are concerned, that integrity has been compromised.”
He said the Council believed the honourable course of action was for the INEC chairman to step aside, adding that failure to do so should compel the government to act.
“The Ummah will not legitimise any election conducted under a leadership clouded by allegations of bias,” Umar warned. “The credibility of Nigeria’s democracy must never be sacrificed.”
Responding to the allegations, a source at INEC dismissed the claims as unfounded and said the commission would not engage in what it described as attention-seeking accusations.
The source added that INEC remained committed to conducting free, fair and credible elections in line with its constitutional mandate.
Umar said the SCSN was not pursuing legal action directly but disclosed that other concerned groups had already approached the courts to challenge Amupitan’s appointment and continued stay in office.
Beyond electoral matters, the Council expressed concerns over rising insecurity, economic hardship, poor budget implementation, perceived imbalance in federal appointments and alleged attempts to undermine Muslims’ constitutional right to practise Shari’ah in states where it is legally recognised.
The SCSN also rejected claims of a Christian genocide in Nigeria, describing such narratives as divisive and capable of inflaming religious tensions and undermining national unity.
Speaking at the event, Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Ecological Funds, Aminu Sani Jaji, said the Pre-Ramadan lecture was timely given the country’s mounting security and socio-political challenges.
He warned that unverified and inflammatory narratives, if left unchecked, could further deepen divisions and worsen tensions across the country.
The chairman of the occasion, the Madakin Zazzau, Mallam Muhammadu Munir Ja’afaru, described the Council as a principled voice of the Nigerian Muslim Ummah, committed to justice, peaceful coexistence and national cohesion through dialogue and constructive engagement.
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