Akure — AT least, two local government chairmen escaped death yesterday in the persisting violence over the 2006 head count. That is besides an acid attack on enumerators in Onitsha, and the chasing away of enumerators in parts of Kogi and Yobe States.

Chairmen of Ose local government area of Ondo State, Mr. Dennis Alonge-Niyi, and his counterpart in Ndokwa West of Delta State, Mr. Emeka Ukpe, were attacked in different incidents in their areas.

In the case of Mr. Alonge-Niyi, 15 other people were shot by militant youths from Okpe in Akoko-Edo local area of Edo State on account of disputes over a Tobacco village, a boundary town between Edo and Ondo states.

In the melee, nine persons including five policemen were reportedly kidnapped by the militant youths and taken to the palace of a traditional ruler in Edo State where they were held hostage before they were later taken to an unknown destination.

The state police command spokesman, Mr Aremu Adeniran, confirmed the incident, adding that the police had been deployed to the troubled area and that some of the enumerators that were held hostage had been released.

Narrating their ordeal to the Deputy Governor, Otunba Omolade Oluwateru, and newsmen in Akure yesterday, Mr Alonge-Niyi and enumerators from the area said they were saved by divine intervention.

The bullet-ridden Toyota Hiace council bus marked LG O8 FFN with the inscription of Census 2006 in which they were travelling before the attack was displayed at the Deputy Governor's residence and later taken to the Government House to show Governor Olusegun Agagu.

Those that were shot and admitted at the Ido Ani General Hospital include 10 enumerators and supervisors, a lady from the State Security Service (SSS), one Army officer, two Special Advisers in the council area and a woman from the National Orientation Agency (NOA) in the state.

Vanguard learnt that they were part of the census monitoring team posted to the council area for the exercise.

Investigations revealed that the militant youths invaded Idogun on Wednesday, laying claim to the camp which is said to be one of the five disputed camps in the area between the state and Edo. Following the claim, Vanguard gathered that a bloody clash ensued and 10 of the enumerators and supervisors deployed in the area were shot by the militant youths.

Mr Alonge-Niyi said the militant youths on sighting the bus in which the monitoring team were retreated into the bush and started raining bullets on them, leaving five of the occupants seriously injured. He said the militants came from Okpe which is about two kilometres from Idogun which is in Ose local government area of Ondo State.

Meanwhile, the PDP leader in Ose council area, Dr Bode Olajumoke, has appealed to the people of the area not to retaliate the attack by the youths from Edo State. Dr Olajumoke pleaded that they should allow all the necessary security operatives and the state government in the state wade into the matter with a view to finding a lasting solution to the boundary dispute.

LG Chairman escapes death

Also, Chairman of Ndokwa West constituency, Mr. Emeka Ukpe, narrowly escaped death yesterday after thugs numbering over 40 allegedly invaded a hotel at Kwale where he was holding a census sensitization meeting with National Population Commission (NPC) officials and stakeholders in the area.

His Personal Assistant (PA), Mr. Uchennna Aselem, was attacked with machetes. He is now hospitalised.

The State Police Commissioner, Mr. Udom Ekpoudom, confirmed the incident, saying: "I heard so. My DCO (Divisional Crime Officer) briefed me and I have ordered investigation into the matter. The law respects no one no matter how highly placed."

2 die as MASSOB attacks

Meanwhile, two enumerators, a pregnant woman and a young man, have been killed in Onitsha and Oyi, all in Anambra State, by people suspected to be members of the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB).

The pregnant woman was said to have died from an acid bath by her assailants, while the young man was said to have died after his hands were chopped off.

The National Population Commissioner in Anambra State, Alhaji Tijani Kaura, confirmed this at a press briefing, though he did not give the identity of the enumerators.

The pregnant woman, according to him, was attacked with acid in Oyi Local Government Area while the young man was killed in Onitsha South Local Government Area.

Kaura, however, dismissed a report that seven persons died in Ihiala local government on Wednesday. He said he personally visited Ihiala and did not receive any report on such incident from his controllers there.

The commissioner said he had written a report on the security which he said was of great concern to Governor Peter Obi for his intervention. He said he had withdrawn three controllers in Njikoka, Ogbaru and Onitsha South areas for inefficiency and incompetence.

And in Abuja, National Chairman of the NPC Chief Samaila Makama, said two enumerators were bathed with acid in Onitsha, Anambra State. One of them died, he said. Two others were given similar treatment in Oyi local government of the state.

Chief Makama cited apathy on the part of the people especially those in fishing zones of Delta State as one of the problems inhibiting the smooth conduct of the exercise in the state, adding that there were reported cases of shortage of form NPC 07 in Kano State.

He said an enumerator was beaten up at the Asaya NYSC camp in Kogi State following claims by both Kabba Bunu and Ijumu Local Governments, even as he said there would be no enumeration for any community or individuals at the expiration of the exercise.

The NPC boss who noted that more call back cards were needed and appropriate actions being taken, said though enumeration was going on in Ondo State, payment of allowances had not been effected in some local government areas of the state.

"Enumeration is on in Abia State and in some areas, concurrently with household listing and house numbering in all the LGAs except Aba North and South for fear of insecurity. The activities of MASSOB who abducted two supervisors on Monday have been brought under control by the Governor of Abia State. In Edo State, enumeration is on, after protracted crisis on payment of functionaries, the enumerators and other categories of staff have gone back to work," he said.

Chief Makama said that the Commission might ask for an extension of the census exercise in view of the various problems besetting it.

Security beefed up

Police beefed up security especially in the South-East yesterday, a police officer said, after a violent start to its first census in 15 years left at least 10 dead and scores of others injured.

Meanwhile, census officials want the exercise to be extended, saying the five days allocated were not enough to count everybody in Africa's most populous country, where an estimated 120 to 150 million citizens live.

"There are pockets of violence and skirmishes in some areas around Anambra State," said police spokesman, Fidelis Agbo, yesterday in Awka, the state capital.

"We have deployed more men to some of the trouble spots in the state like Onitsha, Nnewi, Ihiala and Awka," Agbo said, but stressed the violence was not serious enough to disrupt counting.

Nine people -- three policemen and six members of MASSOB-- were killed in a shootout, Monday, in the nearby market town of Nnewi when security forces tried to search a house for suspected 'Biafran' separatists, according to police.

A senior officer in nearby Onitsha blamed the clash on market vigilantes, but Information Minister, Mr Frank Nweke, linked it to a campaign against the census by MASSOB.

Suspected MASSOB members were also fingered for hacking a young census officer to death with machetes in Onitsha and wounding five others by spraying them with acid. Six people were injured in a stampede yesterday when police fired shots during a raid on the home of a suspected MASSOB member in the same city.

MASSOB has denied responsibility for the attacks, saying it was the work of "hoodlums" who wanted to smear the organisation's name.

Census counters have, meanwhile, asked for the exercise to be extended, saying the allotted time was not enough to count everybody because the census got off to a very slow start.

Today and tomorrow have been declared a public holidays by the Federal Government to ensure the success of the census.