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By Akpan David, Calabar
The federal commissioner representing Cross River State on the board of National Population Commission (NPC), Navy Captain Charles Ogwa (rtd) has confirmed that Enumeration Area Demarcation (EAD) exercise has commenced today, 28 July 2021 in Calabar Municipality, which had issues after initial exercise.
He made the confirmation in his office at a news conference, where he said they had earlier conducted such pre-census exercise in other 17 local government areas of the states preparatory for the actual head count in he entire country soon.
Ogwa said: “In Cross River State, we had earlier done the first and second phases of EAD. We’re now in phase 16 and will end in August 2021 with phase 17. The essence of the EAD in Calabar Municipality which is actually an update, is to correct some challenges which delayed the conclusion of the earlier one we conducted. We are not doing a fresh exercise. We hope that this time around, there won’t be anymore issues.”
He disclosed that the update will last for 28 days, which really involved fresh numbering of houses etc, adding that enumerators were trained in this regard.
He called for cooperation by the locals for a smooth update, commending traditional heads for always lending supports.
He mentioned that they have frequently relied much on knowledgeable local guides who help to identify natives in neighborhood.
He however lamented that whereas other state governors have usually responded to calls by his colleagues in other states yet the Cross River governor has hardly given heed to any of their calls as if census exercise is not important to he state.
“We plead that this exercise which the president has now given approval to their proposal for census to be conducted, is very important and needs all critical stakeholders to give supports”, he said.
According to the population boss, the president is moved towards census after 16 years following pressure mounted by the United Nations and other international groups.
Ogwa also disclosed that NPC has deployed most modern technologies to conduct both EAD as well as upcoming census, so that issue of double counting from one state to another will be completely eliminated.
