Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue has lauded President Muhammadu Buhari for directing that the national population census be postponed.

This is contained in a statement by his media aide, Terver Akase, on Saturday in Makurdi.

He said that with the postponement of the census now approved by Mr Buhari, the federal government should ensure that Nigerians whose communities had been taken over by bandits and armed herders regained their lands and returned home.

He said the lives and well-being of the people must be placed above other factors for the nation to realise its aspiration for greater growth and development.

Mr Ortom had, on April 13, called on the federal government to postpone the planned census until adequate security was guaranteed in the country.

The governor specifically stated that conducting the census will amount to injustice and deprivation of millions of Nigerians who have been displaced from their ancestral homes and are living in the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camps in the state and other parts of the country.

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

“So, until they 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 their homes of birth,” he had said.

On Friday, Mr Buhari announced the postponement at a meeting with some members of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) and the chairman of the National Population Commission with his team at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.

He said the incoming administration would now conduct the exercise even as preparation would still be ongoing to achieve its success.

(NAN)