Gov Ortom applauds FG for postponing 2023 census

President Muhammadu Buhari has received praise from Samuel Ortom, the governor of Benue State, who has frequently criticized the government for delaying the 2023 census.

Mr. Ortom thanked Mr. Buhari for "listening to the voice of reason" by ordering the census to be delayed.

The president postponed the exercise after meeting with a few members of the Federal Executive Council and the Chairman of the National Population Commission at the Presidential Villa in Abuja on Friday, according to a statement made on Saturday by Lai Mohammed, Nigeria's minister of information and culture.

The population and housing census had been scheduled for April 13, but the governor had requested that it be delayed "until adequate security" was ensured throughout the nation in a statement released by his media adviser, Terver Akase.

The census, according to Mr. Ortom, would result in "injustice and deprivation of millions of Nigerians" who have been driven from their ancestral homes by terrorists.

The governor claimed that there are two million internally displaced people (IDPs) residing in camps in Benue alone.

“I want to say that the federal government should suspend the issue of census because it looks like the proposed census is coming with an agenda.

“It should be suspended until they (the government) are able to restore security and all our IDPs go back to their ancestral lands to give all of them opportunities to be counted in the homes of birth.

”Because I understand from the National Population Commission that those to be counted must be counted in their localities,” Mr Ortom said.

Source