States and Local Councils in some parts of the country that have employed their own enumerators to conduct the national population and housing census are wasting their time and resources, the National Population Commission (NPC) has said.
The Police also said yesterday that it had rescued some prominent Nigerians and enumerators kidnapped by armed youths in some parts of the country.
The commission, which declared such exercises as illegal, stated that it would not reckon with their results.
In an exclusive interview with The Guardian, after a press briefing in Abuja on Thursday NPC boss, Chief Samaila Danko Makama said any state governors and council chairmen that employed enumerators on their own had contravened the law and the law would take its course.
Makama said governors who were desperately breaking the law should consider their actions as “illegal and unacceptable to the NPC” as everything had been done to address the logistic problems hat marked the commencement of the exercise.
He said the NPC had a national data base of all the enumerators it employed and reports signed by enumerators that were not from it would be null and void… “Let the governors note that now”.
His response came amidst reports that the Borno State government and its councils had employed their own enumerators because of the few number of officials posted to the state from Abuja.
On how census would be conducted in areas where communal clashes caused by land disputes disrupted the process, Makama advised those living in such areas to ensure that they were enumerated during the census period.
He explained that if census did not take place within the agreed period, enumeration would not be conducted separately for any community because it will no longer be 2006 census.”
Speaking on the shortage of materials, Makama remarked that most of the claims were “unsubstantiated and totally unjustifiable.”
In a statement last night, the police High Command in Abuja, explained that six enumerators, three local council chairmen and three traditional rulers kidnapped by some aggrieved persons had been rescued.
The statement by the Deputy Commissioner and Force Public Relations Officer Mr Haz Iwendi, added that so far 82 persons had arrested for offences such as assault on census officials, unlawful possession of firearms and incendiary materials, breach of public peace and kidnapping.
He gave other offences committed by detainees as impersonalisation, snatching and burning of census materials.
Iwendi said the suspects would be tried in the high courts by the lawyers and prosecutors in the areas where the offences were committed.
The Police re-assured all Nigerians especially enumerators of their safety and protection throughout the census exercise. The force also appealed to all citizens to eschew violence and toe the path of peace.
In Kaduna State, the Federal Commissioner of NPC Dr. Ufot Asibong Ibe said saboteurs of the exercise had hijacked materials meant for the census in the state.
The incident he said led to the shortage of materials in Kaduna.
He disclosed this during talks with journalists while monitoring the headcount in Kajuru, Kufana, Kasuwa Magani, Kachia and Zaria.
Also yesterday, some senators associated with the conduct of the headcount registered their protests against the lapses
At separate press conferences in Abuja, they expressed support for the clamour for the extension of the period earlier earmarked for the census.
Senator Victor Kassim Oyofo (Edo State) observed that even as the exercise reached its fourth day yesterday, one-third of the people in his senatorial district had not been counted due to inadequate materials, adding that his local council, which was to receive 600,000 forms, only got 78,000.
He lamented that some census supervisors posted from his state to the northern part of the country were rejected and disallowed from carrying out their duties even as those posted from other parts of the country to his area were given free hands to operate.
Oyofo said the questions being asked by the enumerators were totally irrelevant to the issue of population and wondered how issues of types of furniture, number of radio and television sets were connected to the exercise.
Senator Abubakar Sodangi, who declared that he was speaking on behalf of the entire senators from Nasarawa State, decried the inability of the census officials to cover the State since the exercise began on Tuesday.
In a letter titled “Complaint on the Shortage of Materials for the on-going census in Nasarawa State” and addressed to Makama, Sodangi said the materials so far supplied to the five local councils that made up his constituency were grossly inadequate.
“The essential official ink for thumb-printing was not supplied at all; when the frustrated citizens wishing to be counted and wanted to go and buy the ordinary ink for use, they were told that the computer will reject their forms,” said the lawmaker.
He urged the government to extend the census period by at least three days to afford all those who were yet to be counted the opportunity to do so.
Meanwhile the Plateau State Governor Joshua Dariye has said that the NPC has disappointed Nigerians through its shoddy handling of the census.
Dariye told journalists yesterday after he had gone round some enumeration centres that there was no way the over 4.5 million people of the state would be counted at the expiration of the exercise today.
Dariye made the observation as traditional rulers within the Jos Joint Council were cautioned against interfering with the conduct of the census.
The Gbong Gwon Jos, Dr. Victor Pam, gave the warning while monitoring the exercise in local councils within his domain.
He described as regrettable reports that some traditional rulers were confusing issues of boundary and headcount.