By CHRISTIAN OGBONNA

The National Population Commission (NPC) says its focus is to ensure that all resources expended are safeguarded ahead of the 2023 Population and Housing Census in the country.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that former President Muhammadu Buhari had postponed the conduct of the exercise earlier scheduled to hold from May 3 to May 7.

Mr Darlington Okereke, NPC’s Federal Commissioner in Ebonyi, said this at a one-day Breakfast Meeting for Media Executives on Friday in Abakaliki.

Okereke said that the safeguard was necessary in order not to start preparations all over when a new date would be fixed.

He said the objective of the breakfast meeting was to update media executives on the status of preparations for the national census.

“We also gathered to enlighten you on the next steps forward in the light of the postponement of the conduct by the former President,” he added.

The Commissioner noted that it had carried out all the preparatory activities towards the census exercise, including the Enumeration Area Demarcation (EAD) and conduct of pre-tests and trial census amongst others.

“We have conducted recruitment and training of census field staff, procurement and configuration of Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), establishment of ICT infrastructures and logistics support, advocacy and publicity activities.

“The most important task before the commission is to sustain and reinforce the relevance of these activities to the successful conduct of the 2023 census.

“This will ensure that the nation does not have to start afresh the preparations, thereby saving cost.

“The Commission has laid solid foundation for future censuses,” Okereke stated.

On the new date for the conduct of the exercise, the Commissioner said it was yet to be fixed but that would be done by the Federal Government.

Mrs Julia Manyike, Director in the Commission in Ebonyi, commended the media for the support at ensuring credible and reliable census exercise across states of the federation.

Manyike called on all stakeholders in the state to be supportive, advising that all hands must be on deck to achieve successful exercise. (NAN)

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