NGO set to enforce order on prison inmates’ vote

A criminal justice organisation has indicated its intention to enforce the court order directing the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to grant prison inmates the right to vote during elections. The Citizens United for the Rehabilitation of Errants (CURE) said after two letters to the INEC chairman, Prof Mahmoud Yakubu, reminding him of a judgment […]

A criminal justice organisation has indicated its intention to enforce the court order directing the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to grant prison inmates the right to vote during elections.
The Citizens United for the Rehabilitation of Errants (CURE) said after two letters to the INEC chairman, Prof Mahmoud Yakubu, reminding him of a judgment by a Federal High Court in Benin, Edo State which granted inmates right to vote in all elections, said no measure had been taken to comply with the order.
The executive director of CURE, Sylvester Uhaa, said the organisation had obtained the certified copies of the judgment and was now set to go back to court to compel the electoral umpire to comply with the order.
“Prison inmates have the right to vote in an election. It is their right under the universal suffrage, Uhaa said, adding that voting by inmates has a “tremendous rehabilitation and re-entry value” for them.
Justice Mohammed Liman had in December, 2014, declared the exclusion of inmates in elections conducted in Nigeria by INEC as unconstitutional, illegal, irregular, unlawful, null and void and of no effect whatsoever.
CURE had on July 27, 2015 and July 11, 2016 written to INEC over the 2014 judgment but regretted that no action had been taken.
It therefore called on INEC to take steps to register the inmates for the general elections in 2019 to enable Nigeria join other African countries such as South Africa, Ghana and Kenya that have joined other nations of the world to restore the right of inmates to vote.