The Nigeria Correctional Service (NCoS) has revealed that about 53,460 inmates are awaiting trial nationwide.

The Comptroller General of the NCoS, Sylvester Nwakuche, made the disclosure this on Friday in Abuja while meeting with the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Mahmood Yakubu.

Leading top officials of the paramilitary agency to the INEC headquarters, Nwakuche made a case for inmates, asking the electoral body to extend some rights to them, particularly the right to vote.

According to the NCoS boss, there are 81,000 prison inmates nationwide.

Responding, the INEC chairman said it would allow prison inmates to vote during elections.

He affirmed the judgment of the Appeal Court, granting inmates the right to register and vote in any elections.

He referenced a series of meetings the commission had with the NCoS, to work out modalities for accommodating affected inmates, which include access to facilities, and political parties’ concerns, as well as clarifications for the category of inmates the judgment favours.

The INEC chairman re-echoed the need to seek the intervention of the National Assembly on the matter.

He assured the NCoS of the commission’s determination to allow inmates to vote in any election, provided it is done following existing laws.

In 2019, the Court of Appeal sitting in Benin, Edo State, affirmed the right of inmates across the country to vote.

The decision followed an appeal filed by five inmates on behalf of other inmates in Nigerian correctional centres to direct INEC to include their names in the voter register.

The court, however, refused to grant a request that INEC should liaise with the NCoS to create registration centres at various prisons across the country.