Prisoners may vote in the 2019 elections as the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC is making plans with the Nigeria Prisons Service to achieve this feat.
INEC Chairman, Mahmood Yakubu, said this on Tuesday in Abuja at a dialogue session tagged Nigeria Civil Society Situation Room Dialogue.
It would be recalled that three years ago a Federal High Court in Benin, Edo State, ruled that prisoners in Nigeria have the right to vote in all elections conducted in the country.
Mr. Yakubu said the commission was considering creating polling units in Nigerian prisons to give some categories of prisoners the opportunity to vote. He explained that only ”certain categories of prisoners” would be given such an opportunity depending on the nature of the crimes committed.
“We have already engaged the Comptroller-General of Prisons and we have statistics on the number of prisoners nationwide and the number of inmates registered.”
“We are looking at the possibility of creating polling units in the prisons and to enable some categories of prisoners to 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, will be done.”