The Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) has accused the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) of preventing thousands of hijab-wearing Muslim women from voting in Saturday’s Osun State governorship election, a claim that has prompted calls from Nigerians for the organisation to provide verifiable data showing the scale and locations of the alleged disenfranchisement.
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MURIC, in a statement issued on Sunday by its Executive Director, Professor Ishaq Akintola, alleged that the incidents occurred widely across Osun State and amounted to coercion, humiliation and denial of the affected women’s voting rights.
“Thousands of Muslim women who wore hijab were disallowed from voting in the Osun gubernatorial election which took place yesterday, 15th August, 2026. The incident was widespread,” Akintola said.
He further alleged that some women were eventually permitted to vote only after removing their hijab.
“It was targeted coercion, humiliation and disenfranchisement. A few weak and uninformed Muslim women in hijab were allowed only after surrendering by removing their hijab,” he said.
MURIC blamed the alleged incidents on what it described as INEC’s failure to properly educate its permanent and ad hoc officials about freedom of religion and the rights of Muslim women.
“We strongly condemn this massive disenfranchisement. But we cannot but connect it to the failure of INEC leadership to properly educate and instruct its regular and ad hoc staff on freedom of religion,” Akintola stated.
The organisation said it possessed evidence supporting the allegation, pointing specifically to a video of a hijab-wearing woman who complained that she was prevented from voting because of how she was dressed.
“We have concrete and incontrovertible evidence for our allegation. We have a video clip of an hijab-clad Muslim woman who complained bitterly about how she was disallowed from voting on account of hijab she wore,” Akintola said.
The allegation appears consistent with a complaint that emerged during the election involving a woman who said officials demanded that her ears be exposed before she could be captured for accreditation.
MURIC, however, went beyond the individual incident, claiming that thousands of women suffered similar treatment across the state.
That numerical claim has become a point of contention, with Nigerians reacting to the statement asking the organisation to publish the evidence underlying its estimate rather than rely principally on a general statement and a video involving one voter.
Critics have asked MURIC to identify the affected polling units, wards and local government areas, state how many women were allegedly denied accreditation at each location and provide testimonies or incident reports capable of establishing that the problem occurred on the scale claimed.
The challenge is particularly significant because a video establishing the experience of one voter, even if verified, would not by itself demonstrate that thousands of voters were similarly disenfranchised.
MURIC has therefore been urged to release its data, including the number of reported cases and their locations, to enable the public, INEC, election observers and other interested parties to independently assess its allegation.
The organisation also accused INEC Chairman, Professor Joash Amupitan, of hostility towards Muslims and renewed its call for his removal.
MURIC linked its demand to previous controversies surrounding Amupitan, alleging that his disposition towards Muslims had influenced the treatment of hijab-wearing voters. The allegations against the INEC chairman remain MURIC’s claims and have not been established merely by the organisation’s statement.
The group further contended that the alleged exclusion of Muslim women could have affected the outcome of the governorship election.
“MURIC reiterates its call for the removal of Professor Joash Amupitan as head of INEC. We contend that the intimidation of Muslim women in hijab during yesterday’s election in Osun State had a direct impact on the outcome of the election,” the statement said.
It also warned that similar incidents could occur during the 2027 general elections and called on the Federal Government to intervene.
“We warn that worse treatments are in the offing for Muslim voters throughout the country in the 2027 general elections,” Akintola said.
MURIC further warned against what it described as the public humiliation of Muslim women, insisting that religious rights must be respected during electoral accreditation.
It concluded by holding INEC responsible for what it described as a violation of the fundamental rights of Muslim women.
INEC had officially scheduled the Osun governorship election for August 15, 2026, while its published candidate list confirmed Governor Ademola Adeleke as the Accord candidate and Munirudeen Bola Oyebamiji as the APC candidate.
Following the collation of results on Sunday, Adeleke was declared winner with 511,067 votes, defeating Oyebamiji, who polled 444,815 votes, according to the final figures announced for the contest.
MURIC had taken a critical position against Adeleke ahead of the election, including publicly predicting in July that he would be defeated and urging Osun Muslims to reject him.
Against that background, calls for MURIC to release detailed and independently verifiable evidence have intensified, particularly because of its assertion that the alleged hijab-related incidents involved “thousands” of women and had a “direct impact” on the election outcome.
As of the time of filing this report, the material cited by MURIC in the statement included the video of a woman complaining that she was prevented from voting because of her hijab, but no comprehensive polling-unit-by-polling-unit data establishing the claimed number of thousands of affected women was provided.
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