Udora Orizu in Abuja
Ahead of the 2023 Population and Housing Census, the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) has assured the citizens of adequate security during the exercise.
The Inspector General of Police, Usman Alkali Baba gave the assurance on Thursday in Abuja, during a roundtable discussion on 2023 Census organized by the National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies (NILDS).
Baba, who was represented by DCP Dayo Ariyo said police will deploy resources to ensure a successful exercise.
He implored the National Population Commission (NPC) to carry out adequate sensitization of the populace, saying that it’s very essential.
He said, “We will provide security for enumerators, materials and so on. By our structure we have police formations in all the 774 local governments of the federation. We divisions, area commands , zonal commands and so on. Police will deploy both conventional and non conventional resources. Aside that we have other specialized units, We have intelligence unit who will be deployed for intelligence gathering before, during the exercise. Every section of the force will be deployed during the time of the census.”
In his remarks, the Director General of NILDS, Prof. Abubakar Sulaiman while noting that the proposed 2023 census is coming 17 years after, said there is a need to confront and understand the issues associated with this delay and those that were raised in the 2006 exercise especially by the international observers and foreign agencies.
He also noted as envisaged that the growing insecurity in several parts of the country may significantly hamper the conduct of the census.
He therefore urged stakeholders to discuss these critical issues on the 2023 population census that will address the challenges that may influence the successful conduct of the exercise, enhance the synergy among government agencies and other relevant stake holders and identify necessary legislative interventions that will enhance the conduct of population census in Nigeria.
On his part, the Head of Department of Statistics, University of Abuja, Dr. Emmanuel Oguntade urged the national Assembly to make necessary laws on census and allocate necessary funds so that the exercise can be conducted every ten years.
