BY AGNES NWORIE, ABAKALIKI
THE National Population Commission has commenced Phase 12 of the Enumeration Area Demarcation in Onicha Local Government Area of Ebonyi State.
Federal Commissioner of NPC in charge of Ebonyi State, Darlington Okereke, said this while briefing journalists in Abakaliki.
He said the EAD, otherwise known as Census mapping, “is the process of dividing the entire country into concise, identifiable and independent smaller units called enumeration areas for Census planning, budget execution and dissemination of data.”
According to him, each of the enumeration areas has a population threshold of between 500 and 550 persons.
“It is expected that two enumerators can successfully cover an Enumeration Area (EA) within the expected time frame of not less than three days, during the National Census Exercise,” Okereke said.
He said the EAD was among the various programmes that were put in place to ensure accuracy, reliability and acceptability of the national census project.
“The Enumeration Area Demarcation (EAD) programme had been designed to run in phases, having recently ended at Ohaukwu LGA in the Phase Eleven. We are currently in Onicha LGA for the Phase 12 exercise which will cover the entire 12 INEC Registration Areas (wards) in the whole area,” he explained.
He added that in order to ensure that the exercise was hitch-free and successful, NPC had mapped out enlightenment, sensitisation and advocacy programmes across the 12 wards of Onicha LGA, noting that stakeholders’ meeting, sensitisation in markets and wards in the entire Onicha LGA had been concluded.
“All these sensitisation outings in Onicha LGA is to make sure that the good people of Onicha are also informed and sensitised in order to ensure credible census preparation in our state as it will go a long way in eliminating any form of misgivings at the end of the exercise,” he said.
