Otti rejects NPC’s previous population figure on Abia

Abia State Governor, Alex Otti, has stressed the importance of population census for planning and development purposes.

This is even as he has rejected the census figure allocated to the state by the National Population Commission (NPC) during the last census exercise.

Governor Otti stated this when he met with the federal commissioner, National Population Commission, Abia State, Emma Eke and his management staff who visited him.

He observed that the population of Aba, the commercial nerve centre of Abia state alone, is overwhelming.

The governor, who stressed the need for the government to work with a reliable census, said it would be difficult for the government to plan or develope the society ,without accurate population data.

Otti said that past governments did not understand the importance of census but assured his guests that his administration would partner with them to achieve a successful exercise.

“I can identify with the points you have raised about population census. If you don’t know how many you are you can’t plan. People in the past did not understand what census was all about. Census is very very important for planning and development”

Earlier in his address, the federal commissioner, National Population Commission, Emma Eke said census serves as a critical source of information on the population’s demographic, social and economic characteristics, which informs policymaking, resource allocation and development planning at various levels of government.

He disclosed that in 2006, Abia State was grossly represented by itself as a result of inactions and wrong policy implementation of the then administration, adding activities of separatist groups also affected census exercise in the state, but said that the next population and housing census provides Abia citizens another opportunity to get accurate data.