The National Population Commission (NPC) has urged Ekiti residents to cooperate with its officials deployed for the Enumeration Area Demarcation (EAD) in the state.This is contained in a statement by Mr Ayodeji Ajayi, Federal Commissioner for NPC in the state in Ado Ekiti on Tuesday.“We implore residents to please cooperate with NPC officials that will be going around to collect data,” he said.Ajayi, who is a former Ekiti State Head of Service, disclosed that Ado Local Government Area of the state is currently hosting NPC staff for the exercise, adding that all premises in the LGA would be demarcated.”
This means that we need to gain access to all premises in the LGA during the exercise as buildings therein will have to be seen by our officers.”The EAD exercise is one of the most vital Pre-Census activities in the state and the foundation for the actual enumeration exercise to be carried out by the commission.
”The exercise would be based on INEC wards within the local government and would be the foundation for convenient delineation of the LGA into small units, which would later serve as operational areas during the actual census for pairs of enumerators,” he said.The federal commissioner stated further that the exercise was being carried out concurrently in 98 LGAs across the 36 states of the Federation. ” The commission adopted the latest scientific tool worldwide for this exercise, including the Geographical Information System (GIS) technology”
It is on this note note that we seek support of all and sundry for all our officers’ unrestricted access to all the buildings” The enumerators will move around in the community, numbering houses and making enquiries about households,
mapping enumeration and registration areas, in collaboration with other stakeholders,” he said.Ajayi added that it was on that basis that the commission had begun advocacy visits to strategic places, including the traditional institution to seek support and sensitise them for the success of the exercise.He said the advantages of EAD was not limited to population census only, saying ”
In fact, the outcome of the exercise will be useful to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and other institutions that require basic population statistics..”He disclosed that the exercise which began on April 25 would end on May 28. (NAN)
