NPC Assures Census Functionaries Of Safety

The National Population Commission (NPC) has assured its functionaries in Plateau State of safety during the forthcoming national population and housing census to be held in May.

This is made known by the  State Director of NPC in Plateau, Pam Deme in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Thursday in Jos.

He said that the commission would adopt security apparatus of the demarcated communities during the exercise.

He explained that this is in addition to the engagement of security agencies, to ensure the safety of functionaries during the exercise and maintenance of order.

He stressed the importance of the safety of its functionaries and proper security arrangements saying, “We are about establishing a security and logistic committee."

He said that NPC conducted a series of community mobilisation outreaches, to enlighten and involve community leaders and their members.

“The action will foster understanding and their cooperation to ensure the success of the exercise.

“In census we do not do the job alone, we work with community leaders to foster understanding and get their cooperation.

"We did this through community mobilisation and they have been supportive.

“They(community) were involved in the demarcation, they served as our guides in the processes, “ he said.

Deme said that the commission has conducted a series of training for census functionaries, to ensure they discharged their duties diligently.

He stated that 1,505 state facilitators were trained in January, including its specialised task force, who would handle technical hiccups during the exercise which is digitised.

He said that special arrangements have been made to capture Internally Displaced Persons and homeless persons during the exercise.

“We are preparing to capture everybody, including IDPs and homeless people.

“if you do not have a house and you are sleeping under the bridge, we have a special time kept for that, that is in the night where they usually find locations to sleep.

“We have already located such areas and even households that do not have where to stay and also nomads that are on the move, arrangements have been made on such kind of persons,” he said.

He urged Plateau residents to cooperate with its functionaries to release information required for census exercise to succeed.

He described census as important and critical to ensure optimal for development at all levels.