EXCLUSIVE: INEC Chairman, Prof Amupitan, In 2020 Report Confirmed "State Actors" Are Behind Genocide In Nigeria, Recommended US, UN Intervention

Nigeria’s newly appointed Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof Joash Ojo Amupitan (SAN), in a 2020 report where he wrote a legal brief, accused "state actors" of participating in acts of alleged genocide and mass killings across the country.

Amupitan in the same international report called on the United States and the United Nations to urgently intervene in the Nigerian situation and stop the violence under the administration of then president, Muhammadu Buhari, who is now late. 

In the brief obtained by SaharaReporters, Amupitan made a damning conclusion: “There is evidence that genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity have been committed by both State and non-State actors,” he wrote.

“The Nigerian Government has not demonstrated sufficient willpower to deal with the crises; hence they have persisted and proliferated. As there is delay in taking drastic actions, lives are being lost, thereby inching the country’s destination to another Holocaust, Yugoslavia, Rwanda, Darfur and Myanmar. Can the country survive it?”

In his recommendations, the professor urged the U.S. Department of State to make a formal referral to the Criminal Division of the U.S. Department of Justice and to the U.N. Security Council, calling for a series of sweeping international actions against perpetrators the “crimes under international law.”

Among his proposals, he advised that: “An independent, neutral and impartial international commission of inquiry should be set up to investigate the causes of recurrent crimes under international law in Nigeria; identify perpetrators and make appropriate recommendations for immediate action.”

He also recommended sanctions on both government officials and armed groups responsible for atrocities, stressing that the measures should be enforced under Articles 41 and 42 of the U.N. Charter, alongside possible prosecution through a U.N.-backed tribunal similar to those established for Yugoslavia, Rwanda and Sierra Leone.

In another striking suggestion, Amupitan proposed that the U.N. Security Council should refer Nigeria to the International Criminal Court (ICC), citing Article 13 of the Rome Statute as a basis for jurisdiction, and further urged contracting states under the Genocide Convention to sue Nigeria at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for its alleged failure to prevent genocide.

“Contracting Parties to the Genocide Convention should sue Nigeria at the International Court of Justice for failing to comply with its obligations to prevent genocide and to punish perpetrators,” the brief read.

“The crises by the Boko Haram and the ethno-religious militia on one hand, and the excesses of the Nigerian security forces on the other hand, have occasioned protracted needless killings in Nigeria,” he stated.

He further warned that without international pressure, “Nigeria’s leadership would continue to act with impunity, enabling extremist groups to operate unchecked while silencing victims through intimidation and state-sponsored violence.”

“Military action by the U.N., African Union and ECOWAS forces may be taken as a last resort,” he wrote, referencing Article 42 of the U.N. Charter.

In another part of the brief,  Amupitan declared that “it is a notorious fact that there is perpetration of crimes under international law in Nigeria, particularly crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide.” 

He lamented what he described as the government’s failure to prosecute offenders and protect minority citizens, warning that Nigeria risked repeating “the Rwandan and Sudanese mistakes” where the world stood by as ethnic massacres unfolded.

“While the country is trying to manage the concerns engendered by the clamour for self-determination,” he wrote, “two violent extremist groups have emerged to exacerbate an already deteriorating situation… Boko Haram and the Fulani herdsmen, responsible for an orgy of bloodbath and massive displacements in many States across Nigeria.”

He noted that although Boko Haram had been formally designated a terrorist organisation in 2013, the Fulani herdsmen — whom he directly accused of orchestrating widespread massacres — had not been officially recognised as terrorists, but rather “labelled a terrorist group.”