Minna — The Niger state government has disagreed with National Population Commission (NPC) on the population of children between the ages of one to five years in the state.

The state government relied on the statistic gathered on immunization of children which put their population at over 2 million children while the NPC depends on the projection of 2006 population census which put the number of children in the state below 1million.

The disagreement arose at an interactive session yesterday when the state federal commissioner at the NPC, Aliyu Datti paid a courtesy call on Governor Mu'azu Babangida Aliyu in Minna.

The federal commissioner added that the state did not file its petition in that regard at the tribunal set up to look into such claims after the 2006 census.

He therefore implored the state to focus its attention on the 2016 census saying with 2006 population census projection the population of the state in 2013 is expected to record increase from 3.9 million to 4.9 million with more male than female.

In his remark, Aliyu urged Nigerians to challenged NPC with a view of having a credible population figures.

He also opposed the payment of fees for registration of birth and death saying his government is ready to give the commission a piece of land to construct a befitting office complex in the state.