THE HAGUE, NETHERLANDS — The International Criminal Court has dismissed an anonymous petition seeking an investigation into alleged systemic kidnappings in Nigeria as crimes against humanity, ruling that the filing was not properly before the court and lacked any legal basis.
The petition, titled “Formal Communication Requesting Investigation into Systemic Kidnappings in Nigeria as Crimes Against Humanity” and filed under Document No. ICC-RoC46(3)-01/26, was dismissed by Pre-Trial Chamber II on September 1, 2026. The three-judge panel, comprising Judge Rosario Salvatore Aitala (Presiding), Judge Sergio Gerardo Ugalde Godínez, and Judge Haykel Ben Mahfoudh, threw out the request “in limine”—at the threshold—on the grounds that it was not properly before the court.
The Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi, confirmed the dismissal in a statement issued on Thursday by his Special Adviser on Communication and Publicity, Kamarudeen Ogundele. While welcoming the court’s swift decision, Fagbemi expressed serious concern over how the anonymous petition was initially processed.
According to Fagbemi, the President of the ICC’s Pre-Trial Division assigned the unverified filing from an unknown submitter to Pre-Trial Chamber II on August 26, purportedly pursuant to Regulation 46(3) of the Court’s regulations—without a prior determination of whether the communication was competent or manifestly frivolous. The AGF described this as an “unusual and troubling departure” from the governing statutory framework of the Rome Statute.
“For the avoidance of doubt, internal administrative guidelines cannot be used to bypass the strict rules established under the Rome Statute. The authority to evaluate information or request an investigation rests solely with the Prosecutor of the ICC, or through formal referrals by a State Party or the UN Security Council,” Fagbemi stated.
Despite the dismissal, the Federal Government said it would make representations to the ICC over the procedural breach, warning that unchecked administrative entertaining of unverified, anonymous requests could strain the relationship between the court and its member states.
Fagbemi reassured Nigerians and the international community that “no investigation has been opened by the ICC against Nigeria, nor has any adverse finding been made against the Nigerian State or its institutions”. He emphasised that the primary responsibility for investigating and prosecuting domestic crimes, including kidnapping and banditry, remains with Nigeria’s national judicial and law enforcement institutions under the fundamental principle of complementarity.
The dismissed petition came amid Nigeria’s persistent kidnapping crisis, particularly in the North-West and parts of the North-Central. According to a report by SBM Intelligence, 7,825 people were abducted across the country between July 2025 and June 2026 in 1,411 incidents, with an estimated N7.78 billion paid in ransom during the period. The ICC’s Office of the Prosecutor previously conducted a preliminary examination of the situation in Nigeria from 2010, noting a reasonable basis to believe that Boko Haram had committed crimes against humanity since July 2009.
