By mercy peter
The Comptroller General of the Nigerian Correctional Service (NCoS), Sylvester Mahmoud El-Kobouti, has called for deeper collaboration with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to advance the voting rights of inmates across Nigeria’s correctional facilities.
El-Kobouti made this appeal during a courtesy visit to the INEC Chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakubu, at the Commission’s headquarters in Abuja on Friday.
The visit, which he described as long overdue, was both a formal introduction and a strategic call to action.
He said “I’m here this morning to pay my respects to an erudite professor and Chairman of INEC,” El-Kobouti began.
“But beyond that, I come with a message to speak on behalf of a community that is often overlooked but has great potential to contribute to the growth of our nation: the inmates of Nigeria.”
He emphasized that Nigeria’s correctional facilities currently house over 81,000 inmates, of which more than 66% are awaiting trial and are therefore presumed innocent under the law.
According to him, these individuals citizens of Nigeria still retain their fundamental human rights, including the right to vote.
Drawing attention to past court rulings in Benin, including a decision upheld at the Court of Appeal, and a recent resolution by the National Assembly, El-Kobouti stressed that incarcerated citizens should not be excluded from the democratic process solely based on their confinement.
“These people have inalienable rights to vote. And for the mere fact that they are in incarceration, we should not deny them that right,” he said.
El-Kobouti urged INEC to work collaboratively with the Correctional Service to review the technical, legal, and operational requirements needed to implement inmate voting.
He proposed that both agencies assess the implications of past court decisions, identify gaps, and lay out a roadmap even if long-term for including inmates in the electoral process.
The Comptroller General stressed that his visit was not just symbolic but a practical step toward giving voice to a population that is often voiceless. “Anywhere I go, I remind people that anyone could end up in incarceration. So, we must treat the incarcerated with fairness and dignity,” he said.
He thanked Professor Yakubu and the Commission for the audience and for opening the door to what he described as a “long-overdue conversation.”
