The National Population Commission (NPC) says the results of the National Population and Housing Census held earlier in the year will be released by December this year.
According to the commission, the processing of data collected during the exercise have almost been completed.
Briefing newsmen shortly after a tour of the Enugu Data Processing Centre of the NPC, the Federal Commissioner in charge of the zone, Dr. Suleman Bello, urged Nigerians to be patient with the commission as it was determined to ensure that it released a result that would not only be credible but acceptable.
He said: �I�m telling you authoritatively that we�ll soon release the result of the 2006 Census, specifically before the end of December, this year. We don�t want to release the results in beats, and we want to ensure that all the details will be there. As it stands now, we are through with the scanning of census questionnaires; the remaining thing is editing which will soon be completed.
�By the time we release the result, Nigerians will see the best and the most credible census ever conducted in the history of this country, we�ll rubbish that of 1991 which was adjudged as the best.�
The Federal Commissioner also used the forum to allay the fears of the people of the south-east geo-political zone of the country that they the result might not favour them, noting that the zone was properly covered during the exercise.
He said that the commission counted the people that were seen during the exercise, insisting that anybody that was not counted in the zone �simply refused to be counted�, as adequate enlightenment and advocacy programmes were carried out throughout the 774 Local Government Areas in the country.
He also disclosed that for the first time in the history of census taking in the country, the scanning technology is being used to process the data, explaining that the use of machine readable questionnaires � Optical Character Recognition (OCR) AND Optical Mark Reader (OMR), enables the use of scanners to capture the data on the forms at great speed.
Bello explained further that the use of scanners also reduces the risk of human errors that would occur if the data were manually keyed in, adding that through the use of computers and the latest software, duplications, inconsistencies and other errors are also quickly detected and corrected.
The Commissioner who was accompanied during the tour by the Enugu State Director of NPC, Mr. Ntuk Nsudor and other officials of the Public Affairs Department (PAD) of the Commission from Abuja led by the Assistant Director, Joe Udi said that in order to ensure an equitable workload as well as transparency in the processing of data, seven Data Processing Centres located in Lagos, Ibadan, Port-Harcourt, Kano, Kaduna, Yola and Enugu were established.
On the possibility of being dragged to court by those who may hold different view about the results when finally released, Bello said that the Commission had made adequate efforts to avoid such a situation, stressing that they have ensured that standards are not compromised.
THISDAY reports that the Commissioner in the course of the tour took newsmen to various sections of the DPC, including; Archives, Preparation, Scanning, Joggers, Editing and Matching sections, during which staff of the Commission were seen working assiduously to deliver on time.