The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has joined forces with the Nigeria Correctional Service (NCoS) to address voting rights for prison inmates.
INEC Chairman Mahmood Yakubu made the announcement on Friday when he received NCoS Comptroller General Sylvester Nwakuche at the Commission’s headquarters in Abuja.
Yakubu confirmed that the Court of Appeal had upheld inmates’ right to register and vote in elections. “The right to vote is a human right and cannot be removed because a citizen is serving time in a correctional facility,” he said, citing similar practices in Ghana, Kenya, and South Africa.
He said INEC’s priority was to work with the National Assembly to secure a clear legal framework for inmate voting. “We must clarify the categories of inmates covered and address concerns about registration access, creation of polling units, political party campaigns, and observer access,” he added.
Yakubu referenced earlier meetings between INEC and NCoS to explore logistics, including voter education and facility access. He said most of Nigeria’s over 81,000 inmates were awaiting trial, with many already registered voters.
Nwakuche backed the call, highlighting that around 66 per cent of inmates were yet to be convicted and should not be denied their rights.
A 2019 Court of Appeal ruling affirmed inmates’ voting rights but stopped short of ordering prison-based registration centres. INEC now seeks parliamentary backing to remove legal ambiguities before rolling out the scheme.