The National Population Commission (NPC) has announced that it has implemented measures to prevent any form of misconduct in preparation for the upcoming population and housing census. In addition, the NPC emphasized that individuals residing outside of their states of origin are not required to travel back home for the census.
According to Isiaka Yahaya, the spokesperson for the commission, citizens will be counted at their places of residence. Yahaya stated in an interview with our correspondent on Monday that the NPC is committed to ensuring a fair and accurate census, free of any malpractices.
His words: ”People should stay where they are, to be counted. They are not to move to their states of origin. It is totally against the essence of the census. You have to be counted where you reside because that’s where you enjoy the social facilities like education and health, among others.
“Apart from this, when the time comes for people to be provided with infrastructure and other things you will not allow the planners to have accurate figures. People are not to move.”
The NPC spokesman also clarified that the exercise is “…a de facto census. We are asking practical questions about those who are living, not those who are yet to be born. We have not trained our enumerator to count people who are not yet born. We have a system in place to guard against all the malpractices that we have envisaged.
“Also, people can only be counted in their houses. This is to discourage people from moving from one place to another after being counted. You can only be counted in one place. There’s will nothing to lie about. When we get to your house, the enumerators would see whatever you say you have and we are not asking for the owner of the house, why will anybody lie?”
