The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has
announced plan for prison inmates to start exercising their voting right from
the 2019 general elections.
The electoral body said it is making arrangements with
prison authorities on the possibility of creating polling units in Nigerian
prisons to allow some categories of inmates vote.
INEC chairman, Mahmood Yakubu, stated this at a dialogue
session with the Nigeria Civil Society Situation Room Dialogue – a coalition of
over 70 civil society organisations in Nigeria.
“We have already engaged the Comptroller General of Prisons
and we have statistics on the number of prisoners nationwide and the number of
inmates that are registered.
“We are looking at the possibility of creating polling units
in the prisons and to enable some categories of prisoners vote. Ghana does it
but there are some categories of prisoners who by the nature of crimes
committed, lose the right to vote.
“Whatever we can do to open up the process to ensure that as
much as possible Nigerians are given the opportunity to vote, we will do,”
Yakubu stated.
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