INEC, Prisons differ on prisoners’ right to vote

The feasibility of prisoners to voting in the 2015 general elections, as directed by a Federal High Court sitting in Benin, appears dim as the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) said it is still studying the court order to situate it with the relevant provisions of the Electoral Act.

This is as the Nigeria Prison Service (NPS) has declared its readiness to collaborate with INEC towards ensuring full participation of prisoners in the elections.

Speaking with Sunday Independent on phone, the Chief Press Secretary to the INEC Chairman, Kayode Idowu, stated that  “INEC is studying the order to know which kind of order it is and situate it within existing legal positions.

“For instance, the provision that said people will vote where they are registered. It is a futile order as there are no polling units at the prisons”.

Further checks at the INEC Headquarters in Abuja revealed that the possibility of prisoners voting in the 2015 elections are slim, as an official who does not want his name in print, told our correspondent that the commission is still grappling with a lot of challenges ahead of the elections, which are more pressing than adding more to its headache.

According to the source, “the challenges the commission is facing right now is bigger than what you are talking about. How can the Commission begin to register the prisoners, when we are still struggling to ensure that the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) from the on-going insurgency in the country vote?
“Apart from that, even the registered voters, most of them are still struggling to get their Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs).

“So, even if the prisoners will vote, I don’t think it is possible for them to do that in next year’s elections”.

It would be recalled that a Federal High Court sitting in Benin, Edo State, had upheld the right of prison inmates to vote in all elections conducted in the country.

The plaintiffs, who instituted the suit on behalf of inmates of Nigerian prisons, are Victor Emenuwe, Onome Inaye, Kabiru Abu, Osagie Iyekepolor and Modugu Odion.

In the amended originating summons of the suit instituted against the INEC and the Controller-General of the Nigeria Prisons Service (NPS), the plaintiffs had asked the court to determine the voting eligibility of prison inmates, having regards to the provisions of Section 25 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, as amended in 2011, and section 12 (1) of the Electoral Act, 2010.

They also prayed the court to determine whether, having regard to the provisions of Section 77 (2) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and Section 12 (1) of the Electoral Act 2010, the plaintiffs had no right to vote in any election and whether the failure of the INEC to make registration and voting provisions for the inmates in the custody of the 2nd defendant did not constitute an infringement on the inmates’ rights as citizens of Nigeria.

They cited Sections 14, 17, 24 and 39 of the Constitution and Articles 13 (1) and 20 (1) of the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights to buttress their arguments.

In his ruling, the presiding judge, Justice Mohammed Lima, declared that “any act by the frst defendant (INEC) to deny inmates the right to vote is unconstitutional, illegal, irregular, unlawful, null and void and of no effect whatsoever.”

“The defendants do not have the constitutional right to deny the claimants their voting rights; that being an inmate is not an offence that impedes their registration and voting right under section 24 of the Electoral Act; and that the exclusion of inmates in elections conducted in Nigeria is illegal, ultra vires and null and void,” the judge held.

Justice Lima also granted an order of mandatory injunction, ordering INEC to update and include in the national voter register the names of citizens in the custody of the NPS. He further granted another order of mandatory injunction, directing the two defendants to include the plaintiffs and make the environment comfortable for them to exercise their franchise so as to ensure that the applicants were not disenfranchised.

Counsel for the plaintiffs, President Aigbokhan, lauded the judgment and described it as “a wedge on the slippery slope of creating second-class citizens in Nigeria, which had given rise to a dangerously fragile environment for the overall rights of the plaintiffs.”

Meanwhile, the NPS Public Relations Officer (PRO), Francis Enobore, while reacting to recent court pronouncement in favour of prisoners’ participation in the electoral process, noted that pronouncement has added new vista to the electoral process, requiring that the two agencies work together for it to succeed.