Census Tribunal sitting in Abuja has nullified the 2006 census results in 14 Local Governments in Lagos State. The affected local governments are Amuwo-Odofin, Eti-Osa, Alimosho, Lagos Island, Lagos Mainland, Surulere, Epe, Ifako-Ijaye, Badagry and Apapa.
Others are Ojo, Ajeromi-Ifelodun and Ikeja. At least five streets were affected in each of the local governments, with 13 areas affected in Eti-Osa and Apapa local government.
Commissioner Justice, Mr. Ade Ipaye and his counterpart in Works & Infrastructure, Mr. Kadri Hamzat and that of Information and Strategy, Mr. Remi Ibirogba made the remarks while speaking at a joint press conference in Lagos.
Ipaye said the outcome has vindicated the resolve of the state government to base its physical and economic plans on a projected population of 17,553,924 in 2006 and over 21,000,000 currently for Lagos.
“We now expect that the National Population Commission (NPC) will urgently announce plans for a recount as ordered by the tribunal in June, 2013.
Also speaking, Hamzat called on the National Population Commission (NPC) to henceforth stop projecting population figures in Nigeria so as to avoid making the mistakes that characterised the 2006 census exercise.
He explained that one of the fundamental problems Nigeria had with the 2006 figures was that NPC determined what it felt the number would be. This, he said is not necessarily bad with the right projection.
“Their IT infrastructure was limited, and when the data was growing they could not capture the data, so the fact is that they have chances of add that add this that could not take the figures that were coming in. So the enumeration area that were created need to be adjusted, so instead of giving us 25,000 in Lagos, give us 100,000”, he said.
