New Law In Lagos- 21m Residents Are Expected To Obtain Residential ID

The recent case of deportation of some ‘Igbos’ from Lagos and the resulting reactions led to various assumptions, in which some considered as witch-hunting, while others saw it as a system cleansing, all in the drive towards ascertaining those who live meaningfully life in the state.

 “The shadow survey carried out by state officials during the exercise showed that Lagos State should have had a population of at least 17,553,924. A good number of residents from various communities within the state protested and, eventually, had petitions filed on their behalf when the Census Tribunal was established,” Ipaye stated.

Governor Babatunde Fashola, also, last Thursday, while flagging off residents registration exercise, being undertaken by Lagos State Residents Agency LASRRA, explained that the exercise would enable the state government to ensure adequate planning structure on where and how to provide required infrastructure for its residents rather than as tax drive as being speculated in some quarters.

He urged residents, especially, parents to ensure that their family members are registered in the ongoing exercise, aimed at creating a central data base to capture the number of residents in the state. In attendance were delegates from Kano State, led by the Special Adviser to the state Governor on House Numbering, Dr. Abdulkadir Umar and other dignitaries.

“For instance the number of vehicle owners in the state is known but not all the residents of Lagos own cars. And we also know the number of pupils in the public schools but not all of them attend school and how will the state know the statistics for the state?” Fashola wondered.
He said that these showed that there was a gap required to be filled and there was nothing to fill it, adding that, “at least we target to capture about 21 million residents.”
“Today is a watershed in the history of Lagos state. It will enable the state government register and collate the data of the entire residents in the state. And with this, the development that we all seek for will happen, as quality data that will aid planning.” Law establishing LASRRA came into effect in 2011 but the agency commenced operation on last June 10 with a pilot exercise.

Eligibility: The exercise is expected to capture everyone who lives in the state irrespective of state of origin, while indigenes of the state that live in other states are not eligible for the registration. Anyone, who lives in the state or is coming to live in the state for over six months, is eligible for registration.
Residents can approach all the centres provided by the agency in the 20 Local Government Areas, LGAs and 37 Local Council Development Areas LCDAs, to register.