NPC faces challeges from area boys, residents- Oyo Director laments

The National Population Commission (NPC), Oyo State, is facing challenges from social miscreants, popularly called area boys, and residents in the ongoing demarcation in Ibadan North/West Local Government of the state.

Mr Olajiire Balogun, the State Director of the commission, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that the commission needed the co-operation of the community leaders and residents of the council to make the exercise hitch -free.

He said the challenges would continue to hamper the commission’s work if it did not enjoy the co-operation of the residents there for the remaining few days of the exercise.

He alleged that some of the residents were asking the commission’s officials what gifts they had brought for them.

“The area boys are harassing the NPC’s members of staff that are out there doing their work .”

He also said some of the residents were running away from the commission’s field officers and not obliging them with answers to questions directed at them by the NPC officials.

These were parts of the obstacles being experienced by the commission’s staff on the field, he said.

He, however, commended the efforts of the Central Council of Ibadan Indigenes (CCII) for assisting the commission in realising its objective on demarcation.

“The committee assisted the commission in scheduling meetings with the various community heads “baales’’ within the local government area, including assistance from some notable politicians,” Balogun said.

Balogun said that 11 wards of the council were being used for demarcation ahead of the 2017 census.
He said, “Seven out of the 11 wards have been concluded, our officials are still on the field and the bulk of the work has been completed”.
NAN reports that the second phase of the Enumeration Area Demarcation (EAD) ahead of the 2017 Population and Housing Census taking place at Ibadan North West Local Government started on Feb. 22 and would end on Wednesday, March 23.
EAD constitutes the foundation on which the entire census architecture stands.
This drives the entire census process in the pre- census, enumeration and post census period.