The Concerned Yoruba Muslim Scholars in Nigeria has expressed concerns about the controversy trailing the continued stay in office by the INEC Chairman, Prof Joash Amupitan after the revelation that he wrote a brief for some Christian bodies to blackmail Nigeria through classification of our security challenges as Christian genocide in Nigeria.

According to a statement by the Secretary General of the Concerned Yoruba Muslim Scholars in Nigeria, Professor Abideen Olaiya, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu was democratically elected as president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria through a credible election organised by INEC under Professor Mahmud Yakubu.

The Scholars states that despite religious and ethnic colouration introduced by some bigots amongst the candidates and their supporters, nobody has come out to question the integrity of the then INEC Chairman.

Professor Abideen Olaiya opines that the present crisis of integrity coming out after the classification of Nigeria as a country of particular concern by the United States of America on the basis of a legal brief authored by the incumbent INEC Chairman, Prof Joash Amupitan in 2020 need the attention of the President being a responsible and responsive leader.

“INEC is the custodian of the nation’s most important agency in Nigeria’s electoral process, the sacred role demands not only technical excellence but moral neutrality, emotional distance from bigotry or sectarian narratives”

According to the statement, our democracy is delicate and our unity is on the cliffs. The electoral umpire just like a referee should not be allowed to suffer from negative perception even before the commencement of the electoral process, perception of Nigerians about the credibility of electoral process is one of the most important reasons for voters apathy in a recent survey conducted by our organisation.

Professor Olaiya called on the President to do the needful to safeguard the credibility of the electoral umpire and democracy in Nigeria.