The Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lt.-Gen. Taoreed Lagbaja has pledged to deploy troops to provide security for personnel of the National Population Commission (NPC) ahead of the population census in the country.

The COAS pledged when an NPC delegation led by its chairman, Nasir Kwarra, paid him a courtesy visit on Thursday in Abuja.

According to him, besides support in terms of security and availability of troops, the Nigerian Army is open to offering the necessary assistance to NPC in transportation and other areas.

“The troops, formations and units deployed in the field will provide security to ensure that your personnel are protected and allow access to areas where they need to conduct the census.

“We will rely on our previous experiences to ensure that those areas that are designated as difficult to access are penetrated.

“This, we will do by training our personnel as it was done during the polio eradication programme,” he said.

Mr Lagbaja said NPC was a critical stakeholder in the gathering of the data required for planning and development in the country.

According to him, NPC is a responsible government agency, and so the Nigeria Army will not in any way disrupt its activities towards achieving accurate census for the country.

In his remark, Mr Kwarra said the visit was to congratulate the COAS on his appointment and solicit the support of the Nigerian Army ahead of the conduct of the population census in the country.

He said the visit was also to brief the COAS on the preparation of NPC before the population census.

(NAN)