ANGELA MBAOCHA writes that the National Population Commission, (NPC) Ebonyi state chapter, has commenced the phase 12 Enumeration Area Demarcation ( EAD) in Onicha local government area of Ebonyi State.
The Federal commissioner in-charge of NPC in the state, Hon. Darlington Okereke, disclosed this on Tuesday while briefing Journalists in Abakaliki, the state capital.
He said the Enumeration Demarcation otherwise known as census mapping, which commenced on February 10, was aimed at dividing the larger place in a smaller units for census planning, budgeting, execution and dissemination of data with the population threshold between five hundred to five hundred and fifty persons.
Okereke said the exercise will enhance successful enumeration by two enumerators within three days during the National census.
The commissioner said the exercise was among various programmes put in place to ensure accuracy, reliability and acceptability of the National census project.
He said the demarcation had been designed to run in phases, having recently finished Ohaukwu LGA in phase Eleven and currently in Onicha for the phase twelve exercise which would cover twelve INEC registration wards in the area.
He noted that the exercise was meant to cover all the thirteen local government areas of the state but they have already captured eight remaining five, adding that stakeholders meeting, market sensitization and wards enlightenment were always being carried out in every segment to adequately inform the people to ensure the smooth running of the exercise.
He stated: “we are not here for boundary demarcation issue, any place there is boundary demarcation issue we will leave the place because we are not National Boundary Commission. When the boundary issue is settled, they will call on us. Our own is to threshold your area in a smaller unit so that when we will be conducting census, it will be easy for the enumerators to count the number of persons in an area within a given time”
“Between five hundred and five hundred and fifty persons are the normal threshold, it need to be in normal size so that two enumerators can finish it for three days comfortably”.
The commissioner debunked the allegation that the commission was the cause of the crisis that erupted in Ezza and Ezza Effium, which led to the killing of innocent persons and wanton destruction of properties. He noted that their activities at the area didn’t cause any mayhem and called on the general public to disregard the information.
Director of the commission, Elder Omoke Nweze, thanked the commissioner for his unrelentless effort and expressed optimism that the exercise would be successful.
