At least 119 National Population Commission (NPC) officials yesterday took an Oath of Secrecy ahead of the Trial Census in Enugu State.
The oath was administered by the Enugu East Chief Magistrate, Mrs Uzo Ozobu-Ozoeze.
The list of the officials includes 104 enumerators, nine supervisors and six top officials of the commission.
In a speech, Chief Ejike Ezeh, the Federal Commissioner, representing the state in the commission, said that the oath was taken to ensure they kept all the information at their disposal confidential.
Ezeh, represented by the State Director of NPC in the state, Mrs Ngozi Onyia, said that the oath would help to ensure that the information got during the trial census did not leak to unauthorized persons.
“We want every other official involved in the trial census to keep the information given to them confidential and not reveal or expose it to unauthorised persons.
“The officials should ensure that they do not discuss or disclose any information got in the process of the trial census to relatives, close associates and friends for any reason.
“The information given by residents during the trial census must remain confidential to the commission,” Ezeh said.
He said that the 104 enumerators were currently undergoing 12-day training in nine Local Government Areas (LGAs) of the state.
According to him, 7,718 Enumeration Areas were selected for the exercise to test run their suitability and readiness for the actual census in 2023.
He said that the nine LGAs were selected three each from the three senatorial zones.
The list included Nkanu West, Enugu North and Isiuzo (Enugu East); Udenu, Uzo-Uwani and Igboeze (Enugu North) and Ezeagu, Oji River and Udi (Enugu West).
The federal commissioner explained that the trial census would be used to test run the new technology and innovations in the national census enumeration proper, involving e-recruitment of personnel and use of special configured computer tablets.
He said that the outcome of the trial census would not form the basis for the main 2023 Census.
He said, “Data generated during the trial census will not be used to arrive at figures for the 2023 Census which is going to be zero-based and from information collected in April 2023.”
He called on stakeholders, including security agencies and the media, and residents of the nine LGAs to support the exercise to ensure its success.
