The Federal Commissioner, National Population Commission in Cross River State, Charles Ogwa, has said the technology for the census has zero tolerance for corruption, adulteration and interference.
Speaking with journalists Thursday, Ogwa maintained that enumerators engaged as ad-hoc staff cannot influence data in their devices, adding that they had carried out tests during the trial census.
“We have a standardised digital technology system for the whole country. Every data captured is sent to the same server from the enumerators to the supervisors for onward transmission to the Local Government officials.
“So, as an enumerator, you cannot tell lies or falsify data because immediately you do, the Data Quality Assistants will find out and carry out a confirmatory test for that ward.
“The principle of ‘Bashiga,’ meaning no entrance will not work in this census because if an enumerator is refused entrance into a household, he will key in ‘blank’ for the household which is disadvantageous to that community.
Ogwa disclosed that there would be a compatibility of data with those of the National Identity Management Commission, (NIMC).
He said that no country in the world had deployed biometrics in its census taking because it would bring up more issues.
He assured residents that the commission is ready to conduct a digital census that will generate reliable and acceptable data to be used in planning for the state.
Ogwa said the postponement of the census will only give them more time to address real issues, mostly with a compendium of localities which will minimise litigation in Cross River after the exercise.