By Abiola Olawale
The National Chairman, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Mahmood Yakubu has affirmed his commitment to enabling inmates in Nigerian correctional facilities to exercise their voting rights in upcoming elections.
Yakubu made this announcement while receiving the Comptroller General of the Nigeria Correctional Service, Sylvester Nwakuche, at the Commission’s Headquarters in Abuja.
Yakubu also referenced a judgment of the Appeal Court, granting inmates the right to register and vote in any elections.
He pointed out that INEC has had a series of meetings with the NCoS to work out modalities for accommodating affected inmates, which include access to facilities, and political parties’ concerns, as well as clarifications for the category of inmates the judgement favors.
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.
The decision follows years of advocacy and legal battles to secure voting rights for inmates, a right upheld by a 2014 Federal High Court ruling in Benin City, which declared that denying inmates the right to vote is unconstitutional.
The court had ruled that incarceration does not strip citizens of their civic rights under Section 24 of the Electoral Act.
