Don’t disrupt 2023 census in South-East, NPC begs Biafra agitators

The National Population Commission, NPC, has pleaded with the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, and other pro- Biafra groups not to disrupt the 2023 population census in the South East region as was the case in the 2006 census when the then Movement for the Actualisation for the Sovereign State of Biafra, MASSOB, scuttled the exercise in the zone.

NPC Federal Commissioner in charge of Abia State, Chief Jonny Nwabuisi, who made the plea at a press conference yesterday in Umuahia, decried the adverse effect of the MASSOB opposition to census in South East which accounted for the low figures ascribed to states in the zone.

He noted that a successful population census would be in the interest of everybody including those pushing for referendum, arguing that referendum must be based on population.

His words:”In 2006, it was MASSOB; today it’s IPOB. But I say that it’s in the interest of IPOB to allow the census. If they talk of referendum ,they cannot do it in a vacuum.

” Referendum is based on population and IPOB has no population of its own that is recognized by any international body that can conduct referendum. They only rely on the population of Nigeria.

“So, it’s imperative and necessary for IPOB members to help in propagating the advocacy on census so that the South East will have a successful census. Otherwise, whatever thing they are doing will be a failure.”

Identify Number, NIN would be accepted.

The NPC boss who hinted that the 2023 census would be conducted in the month of April, said that measures had been put in place for a credible exercise.

Asked if the exercise could be successfully held in an election year, the NPC boss assured that it would be a huge success.

On the method of enumeration during the exercise, Nwabuisi said only persons sighted physically would be enumerated, adding that no person (s) would be captured by proxy.

Responding to a question, the NPC boss, however, ruled out the option of electronic capturing during the exercise.

He said that the enumerators would feed the data they collect from the people into the commission’s data bank.