Nigeria’s electoral umpire is pushing for a change in the law to allow inmates—most of them awaiting trial—to take part in national elections.
The chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, said on Friday the agency would engage the National Assembly to secure “clear legal provisions” for inmate voting, citing ambiguity in the Electoral Act 2022, which restricts registration to citizens “not subject to any legal incapacity to vote.”
“Our immediate task is to engage with the National Assembly for a clear legal provision on inmate voting. Thereafter, we can address the specific issues that may arise in the course of implementation,” Yakubu told reporters after meeting the Controller General of the Nigerian Correctional Service (NCoS), Sylvester Nwakuche, in Abuja.
Yakubu noted that Nigerian courts had twice upheld the right of inmates to vote—a 2014 Federal High Court ruling in Benin and a 2018 Court of Appeal judgment in favour of five plaintiffs awaiting trial—but stressed that voting remained a voluntary right, not one imposed by law.
He said previous joint technical work with the NCoS had flagged operational challenges, including voter registration inside facilities, creation of polling units, and the logistics of allowing campaigns, observer access, and party polling agents behind prison walls.
Nwakuche said more than 81,000 inmates were currently in custody nationwide, with two-thirds yet to be convicted, describing them as “citizens who should not be denied their right to vote.”
“Anybody can find themselves in that community,” he warned. “We must be careful about how we treat them. Inmates have rights, and part of those rights is the right to vote.”
The push has won backing from former Kaduna Central senator Shehu Sani, himself a former prisoner, who quipped on X that inmate enfranchisement could mean “about 100,000 additional votes”—but warned that the internal power structures of Nigerian prisons were “not for the weak.”
“The reform that gives prisoners the right to vote is commendable,” Sani added, calling it a step towards inclusivity and justice.
