Posted by By JOE OMOKARO and MAURICE ARCHIBONG on
Lagos State police command is set to deploy 15,000 of its officers and men to monitor the state census exercise.
•Enumerators on rampage in Badagry over allowances
Lagos State police command is set to deploy 15,000 of its officers and men to monitor the state census exercise. The state Commissioner of Police, Mr. Emmanuel Adebayo who disclosed this to Sunday Sun yesterday evening added that all security apparatus have been put in place to ensure hitch-free exercise.
On possible disruption by militants, the police boss warned that any plan by individuals or group of persons to thwart enumerators from performing their duties will be arrested.
Adebayo stated that 'it is an offence to refuse to be counted, if we have information that somebody has refused to be counted such person will be arrested and if we get information that enumerators are being prevented from doing their jobs whoever does that will be arrested."
The police boss assured that protection of lives and property shall be police primary responsibility and as such all the policemen deployed for the exercise shall carry arms so as to effectively protect the citizenry. His words: 'Our men will be armed because if we are escorting money and people and then there is an attack, how can we protect the money and people without arms? So my men will carry arms," he assured.
In order to ensure a smooth exercise, Mr. Adebayo visited seven centers where the enumerators were paid yesterday. The centers are: Festac, Ikeja, Bariga, Ogba and Ogudu as well as Onikan and Shomolu. Adebayo said he was satisfied with the payment exercise, adding that those who could not be paid yesterday because they could not be certified would be paid today.
Meanwhile, hundreds of youths believed to be among the 2, 000 enumerators billed to work in Badagry, Lagos yesterday made bonfires in the ancient slave port threatening this year's Nigerian census in the southwestern Nigerian town will not hold unless they were paid their allowances.
At about 6pm, the youths marched to the palace of the monarch, after which they staged a protest at the gate of the old secretariat of Badagry Council. But the bonfire they lit at that entrance was quickly put out.
Subsequently, the protesters relocated to the town's roundabout and made fires with used tyres, thus disrupting traffic as that junction is the only major road leading in or out of the ancient settlement. During the uprising, pedestrians and motorists had to carry green branches of various trees, as a mark of respect for or in solidarity with the aggrieved mob.
The protest apparently began Friday night, when after their 10-day training inside a school complex, the protesters virtually held one Mr. Jenti, said to be the local coordinator of Nigeria's National Population Commission (NPC), hostage. They threatened not to let him leave the premises without paying them their due, but around 10pm, a police team led by a chief superintendent, came to his rescue.
Similarly disenchanted, even though they did not participate in the street protest, are 197 census supervisors posted to work in Badagry. These supervisors are from the northern Nigerian states of Benue, Borno, Kano, Niger and Taraba.
One of the supervisors from Niger State, Mr. Ndatsu Kandi Yahaya, said: 'We envisage problems." The man confirmed their training allowances had not been paid adding, 'Even today (Saturday), we don't even know our Supervisory Area (SA). Each supervisor is supposed to oversee a minimum of five Enumeration Areas (EA), and household listing and house numbering should end by Monday before the commencement of the headcount by Tuesday. Furthermore, the oath of secrecy, which we should have taken immediately after the training exercise, has still not been administered, even though a magistrate was on hand to conduct that exercise. With all these shortcomings, I foresee much difficulty," he remarked.
Similarly, Mr. Jerry Gbaishima, from Makurdi local government area of Benue State expressed his dissatisfaction with what many enumerators and supervisors described as an obvious state of ill-preparedness.
'Even our ID cards have not been distributed, allowances have not been paid and many census materials are in short supply. The training was started many days behind schedule and it ended two days late. I don't know how we will finish our jobs on time and return to our bases," he rued.
The supervisors lamented some people had not eaten for days. 'Some of us had arranged with local food sellers to supply us food, promising we would pay them latest Thursday. But when the authorities refused to remit our allowances, the food vendors also stopped serving us, so some of us have not really eaten any thing since Thursday," Mr. Yahaya added.
Another supervisor, Musa Mark, a civil servant from Niger, lamented that for now, at least, the whole exercise has been very discoursing."
When contacted, Badagry Council Chairman, Mr. Tunde Alabi-Hundeyin, said some of the so-called shortcomings are technical and outside our area of responsibility. I gather that the NPC official in charge of this area went ahead to recruit more enumerators than had been planned for. So, at the end of the exercise, those now protesting are those, whose names did not appear on the list for payments. 'I can tell you that those, whose names were on the list had been given their cheque.