The
Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Tuesday announced
that it is making arrangements with prison authorities to ensure that
prison inmates exercise their franchise in the 2019 general elections.
The electoral body said it is looking at the possibility of creating
polling units in Nigerian prisons to allow some categories of inmates to
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 so,”
Yakubu stated.