INEC to allow prisoners to vote during elections

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) announced plans to allow prison inmates to vote during elections.

INEC Chairman, Mahmood Yakubu, disclosed this on Friday while receiving the Comptroller General of the Nigeria Correctional Service, Sylvester Nwakuche, at the Commission’s Headquarters in Abuja.

He cited a Court of Appeal judgment affirming the right of inmates to register and vote, and noted that INEC had previously engaged the Correctional Service to explore practical arrangements, including access to facilities and addressing concerns raised by political parties.

The INEC chairman re-echoed the need to seek the intervention of the National Assembly on the matter.

He assured the service of the commission’s determination to allow inmates to vote in any election, provided it is done following existing laws.

Yakubu’s comments followed Nwakuche’s case for the electoral body to extend some rights to prison inmates, particularly the right to vote.

According to him, there are over 81,000 inmates across the correctional centres, and about 66 percent of them are awaiting trials.

The Comptroller General also cited a recent court ruling that upheld the rights of inmates, especially those who are awaiting trials, to vote in an election.

In 2019, the Court of Appeal sitting in Benin, Edo State, affirmed the right of inmates across the country to vote.

The decision followed an appeal filed by five inmates on behalf of other inmates in Nigerian prisons to direct INEC to include their names in the voter register.

The court, however, refused to grant a request that INEC should liaise with the Nigerian Prisons Service to create registration centres at various prisons across the country.