By Afolayan Sunday
The International Criminal Court (ICC) has officially dismissed an anonymous petition that sought a formal investigation into alleged “systemic kidnappings in Nigeria as crimes against humanity.”
Pre-Trial Chamber II of the ICC threw out the filing, titled Formal Communication Requesting Investigation into Systemic Kidnappings in Nigeria as Crimes Against Humanity (Document No. ICC-RoC46(3)-01/26), on September 1, 2026, ruling that the application lacked any legal basis and was not properly before the court.
A three-member judicial panel comprising presiding judge Rosario Salvatore Aitala, alongside judges Sergio Godínez and Haykel Mahfoudh, dismissed the request in limine (at the threshold).
In the decision published on the ICC website, the three-member panel said the court’s registrar transmitted the petition filed by an unnamed individual to the president of the pre-trial division on August 24, 2026.
However, after the petition was assigned to the chamber on August 26, 2026, the panel dismissed it for lacking “any legal basis”.
In its reaction, the Nigerian Presidency, in a statement issued on Thursday through Lateef Fagbemi, Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, said it was improper for the president of the pre-trial division of the ICC to assign an unverified filing from an anonymous person to Pre-Trial Chamber II.
Fagbemi said the petition was assigned without establishing whether the chamber had the legal authority to handle the matter or whether the complaint was manifestly frivolous.
“The Federal Government notes with serious concern that on 26th August 2026, the President of the Pre-Trial Division improperly initiated a procedural process by assigning an unverified filing from an anonymous submitter to Pre-Trial Chamber II, purportedly pursuant to Regulation 46(3) of the Regulations of the Court,” the statement reads.
“This administrative assignment was executed without a prior, reasoned threshold determination on the competence of the Pre-Trial Chamber or whether the communication was manifestly frivolous, thereby breaching the foundational procedural safeguards established under the Court’s own regulations.
“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. The Rome Statute gives neither the President of the Pre-Trial Division nor any Pre-Trial Chamber the power to receive anonymous petitions or interfere in the internal security matters of a sovereign nation.
“The Federal Government emphasizes that such procedural breaches risk casting an unnecessary shadow over the integrity of the Court’s judicial processes.
“Unchecked administrative entertainments of unverified, anonymous requests have the potential to impugn and strain the progress, mutual respect, and constructive cooperation painstakingly built over the years between the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the International Criminal Court.”
Fagbemi assured Nigerians that the ICC had not initiated any investigation against the Nigerian state or its institutions.
