Olu Samuel, Lokoja
The Federal Commissioner of National Population Commission in Kogi state, Prof. Habibat Jimoh Isah has assured that no one would ever be able to hack into the Server of the Commission being prepared for use for the 2023 Population and Housing census .
He also debunked te rumour that the server was ever hacked even though there were several attempts by Hackers to invade it.
“As against lies and rumours that have been peddled, National Population Commission Server has never been hacked because we have never rested and we won’t rest until the program becomes successful”.
Professor Habibat Jimoh Isah in a press conference to update journalists on the ‘journey so far’ in Lokoja on Tuesday said that the level of security being put in place to secure the server would made it difficult for anyone no matter how intelligent the person may be to be able to break into the server.
“We at NPC are fast learners,we quickly learned from the experience of the Independent National Electoral Commission,Inec in the last election and we have put additional security measures in place that not even our staff can crack” the Federal Commissioner noted.
Professor Isah said that the server is one of the most important aspects of the census and the need to protect it from being hacked is of great importance.
According to him, “In the time past, censuses have been conducted using paper and pen but this time, the census will be conducted using Android devices such that once the information is gotten, it will go directly to the server”.
“Apart from our actions against Hackers and intruders, we have been able to conduct series of trainings for different stakeholders of the commission including the Federal Commissioners.
The recent training for Federal Commissioners was held in Port Harcourt while the state directors and other officials of the commission are undergoing continuous training”.
Prof. Isah explained that the need to take census serious becomes important because it is a tool for national development.
“No serious government is supposed to take census as a joke. Any serious minded government should take the population and housing census as an issue of key interest”. He said.
Isah revealed that the leadership of the commission will also be meeting with the federal government at the Federal Executive Council meeting to brief the executive arm of the government about the level of preparedness.
While speaking on the genuineness of the exercise, Habibat Isah assured residents and citizens of Kogi state that the census exercise will be transparently conducted and the fear of increasing the number of a segment of the state or reducing the counted number of another part of the state will not occur.
He added that being a citizen of the state from the Ebira extraction will never promt him to favour any part of the state or even the people from his own community.
The federal commissioner revealed that special provisions have been made by the population commission to ensure that far reaching places are captured during the headcount.
He revealed that the commission have been able to procure speed boats for places like Ibaji and Bassa LGAs that are surrounded by water.
He added that sensitive issues like religion, language and ethnicity has been removed from the templates because of crisis and clashes that is associated with the aforementioned in some part of the country.