Commission partners Women ministry on population, housing census

The National Population Commission (NPC) is partnering with the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs to promote data upgrade for the next population and housing census.

This was the thrust when the NPC Chairman, Alhaji Nasir Kwarra, led the organisation’s management team on a courtesy visit to the Minister of Women Affairs, Mrs Uju-Kennedy Ohanenye in Abuja.

Kwarra said the visit was to advance the implementation of its core mandate in data gathering.

According to him, the ministry of women affairs plays a critical role in child welfare, gender related issues, disability and other social related matters.

The chairman explained that population census is fundamental to the mandate of the ministry, as it provides the required demographic data disaggregated by age, sex, educational qualification, disability and others.

“I wish to inform you that the NPC is also preparing for the conduct of the next population and housing census and we would like to highlight some of the preparatory activities and steps that have been undertaken by the commission.

“The commission has demarcated the 774 local government areas across the states of the federation and developed hybrid data collection applications.

“We have conducted the first and second pre-tests of the census to test the enumeration areas and the questionnaire, conducted a trial census, identified and mapped special populations.

“We have done advocacy and publicity/stakeholders engagement, collaborated with other national stakeholders to finalise and commence the presentation of the final list of localities, chiefs and local government chairmen.

“The commission’s geospatial data has mapped out all physical infrastructure in the country, which include all households, formal and informal facilities where children and women reside in Nigeria.”

Kwarra said that NPC would also be partnering with the ministry on the planned situational analysis of vulnerable children in the country, saying the ministry would be the lead implementation agency.

He thanked President Bola Tinubu for reappointing some of the commission’s federal commissioners.

In her response, the women affairs minister said the ministry is ready to partner the commission, adding that both organisations would benefit from each other.

Ohanenye said as someone who is closer to the grassroots, noted that she came in with a passion to transform the lives of the people.

“There is a need to come together to fight some critical challenges confronting the grassroots. There is a need for training and empowerment of Nigerians to reduce poverty. I am happy with the mission of the NPC chairman.

“We will tap from NPC’s intelligence to also improve our data, with this you will help us draw a map for our empowerment programme. We are determined to transform the lives of ordinary Nigerians.

“I am assuring you that resources to accomplish all the tasks will be judiciously used; this will happen if we organise ourselves.

“There is a need for planning before the resources will come, I promise, we will work together,” Ohanenye said. (NAN) www.nannews.ng

Enugu governorship election: Appeal Court affirms Mbah’s victory

The State and National Assembly Appeal Court in Lagos has upheld the election of Peter Mbah as the Governor of Enugu State.

The Appellate Court, in a unanimous decision, dismissed three issues raised by the opposing party.

The three-member panel, led by Justice Tani Yusuf-Hassan, concluded that the Labour Party (LP) and its governorship candidate failed to provide sufficient evidence to prove that Mbah was not qualified to contest the election.

Regarding the allegation of over-voting, Justice Hassan stated in her lead judgement that the “Voters’ Register” was not presented before the lower tribunal.

She, therefore, said that failure to submit the voters’ register rendered the appeal inadmissible.

The court also determined that the witnesses presented by the Labour Party did not sufficiently prove the existence of over-voting in the governorship election.

Consequently, the appeal dismissed thd case for lacking merit, affirming the judgement of the election tribunal, which declared Peter Mbah of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as the winner of the March 18 governorship election.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had declared Mbah as winner of the March 18 governorship election with 160,895 votes.

Edeoga of the LP came second with 157,552 votes, while Frank Nweke of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) polled 17, 983 votes to claim third place.

Dissatisfied with the results, Edeoga and his party filed a petition, challenging Mbah’s victory, asking they should be declared as the winners, claiming they had the highest valid votes.

The petitioners also raised concerns about the alleged forgery of a National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) certificate by Mbah.

However, the Enugu State governorship election petition tribunal ruled in favour of Mbah, stating that he met the minimum requirements for the election, which include possessing a school certificate or its equivalent.

The tribunal rejected Edeoga’s witnesses, adding that the petitioner did not present any admissible evidence to prove that Mbah’s certificate was forged. (NAN)

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