Gbenga Odogun, Lokoja
The Speaker of the Kogi State House of Assembly, Matthew Kolawole, on Tuesday denied barring journalists from covering the House proceedings. He blamed some security operatives in the House, saying they had been overzealous in carrying out his orders.
“Sincerely speaking, I have never and I will not order our doors to be closed to journalists. What will I say or stand to gain if I close our doors against journalists. It is through you that the people can hear, see and read about what we do here.
“I want to tell you emphatically that after the August 1 crisis of the House, some of us were invited to the police station to say what we know about the crisis and we got to understand that information got to the police through some journalists.”
Following the invasion of the Assembly complex by hoodlums on August 1, the Speaker had directed that legislators and workers of the state House of Assembly would begin to wear name tags from September 12.
Kolawole gave the directive at a news briefing in Lokoja.
According to him, accredited journalists covering the House proceedings and visitors to the complex will also have to wear the name tags.
He said the measure would facilitate the identification of authorised persons in the Assembly complex and forestall the recurrence of the August 1 invasion of the chamber by hoodlums.
“I never said that journalists should be barred from covering the proceedings, I only said that journalists covering the House should be accredited,” he said.
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