News Obiaks News

Gbajabiamila’s had a media chat with journalists following emerging reports that several committees of the House held their budget defence sessions behind closed doors, barring journalists from covering the process.
                  The speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, has said he would ascertain why some House committees prevent journalists from covering their budget defence sessions. The leader of the House of Representatives made the statement on Wednesday, October 23, when speaking with journalists during the inspection of the budget defense session with other principal officers. Gbajabiamila’s statement came shortly after reports emerged that several committees of the House held their budget defence sessions behind closed doors, barring journalists from covering the process. He, however, said there were reasons for some closed-door meetings, noting that he had confidence in the chairmen of the committees because they were carefully selected based on their background. The speaker noted that the budget process is transparent and open but stated that due to some verifiable reasons there could be closed-door or private meetings in some areas of the budget. "If you see certain things like you have expressed, there will be reasons. The budget process is an open thing. It is transparent. But if there were one or two areas where you have closed-door or private meetings, there might be implications," he said. “I don’t know, it could be for the security implications, I’ve not got that brief. It could be the things that are necessary for the cohesion of the process itself and for the country. He was however clear that he had not gotten any brief on why some budget defence sessions are held behind closed doors.

                   Meanwhile, President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan has said the National Assembly did not shut out journalists from covering proceedings at the 2020 budget defence. Lawan made the denial calling it 'share misrepresentation of fact' that journalists were not allowed to cover the budget defence sessions at the National Assembly. In a statement by his spokesperson, Ola Awoniyi, said the Senate president reacted to a report published in some dailies recently that the media were shut out of the budget defence sessions at the committee level.