Osun Polls: MURIC Demands INEC Chair’s Sacking Over Hijab Ban

​OSOGBO — The Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) has strongly condemned what it describes as widespread, targeted coercion and the massive disenfranchisement of hijab-wearing Muslim women during the August 15 governorship election in Osun State.

​In a sharply worded press statement issued following the polls, the Executive Director of MURIC, Professor Ishaq Akintola, alleged that thousands of eligible female Muslim voters were barred from casting their ballots solely because they wore the hijab. According to the Islamic human rights advocacy group, the systematic exclusion was not an isolated incident but a widespread occurrence across various polling units.

​MURIC claimed that while a few vulnerable and uninformed voters managed to vote, it was only after succumbing to humiliation and removing their religious garments. The organization asserted that it possesses concrete and incontrovertible evidence, including video documentation of affected women bitterly protesting their exclusion at their respective polling stations.

​Attributing the development to a gross failure of leadership within the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Akintola criticized the electoral body for failing to properly educate and instruct both its regular and ad hoc field personnel on constitutional rights and religious freedoms.

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​Consequently, MURIC has renewed its call for the immediate removal of the INEC Chairman, Professor Joash Amupitan, arguing that the deliberate intimidation and marginalization of Muslim women directly distorted the integrity and outcome of the Osun gubernatorial contest.

​The organization further cautioned that unless urgent institutional reforms and stringent personnel training are enforced by the electoral commission, Muslim voters may face graver systemic obstacles and hostility during the upcoming 2027 general elections.