Osun Assembly Bars Journalists From Budget Bilateral Talk

Osun State House of Assembly on Monday barred journalists from the coverage of the bilateral talk for the 2017 budget.

The legislative reporters in the Assembly early in the morning reported for duty following announcement that a bilateral talk would be held with some revenue-generating agencies in the state between Monday and Friday to draw a roadmap for the implementation of the budget but were denied entrance into the venue of the talk without abn explanation.

Only the state-owned media house, the Osun State Broadcasting Corporation (OSBC), was allowed to cover the proceeding.

However, a source, who was part of the proceeding which was held secretly, informed journalists that the reason for dissalowing the media coverage of the proceeding was to prevent the leakage of information on the lawmakers’ confrontation with the executive over poor performance in revenue generation drive.

This, the source said, was borne out of the fear of the legislature for the rage of the governor, Ogbeni Aregbesola if their reaction get to the public.

Investigations showed that during the defence of the budget, the Assembly had registered its displeasure over the poor performance of the executive and reported in the media, the situations that infuriated the governor and threatened to deal with the Assembly members.

This, it was gathered had created fear of unknown in the Assembly members, a situation that propelled them to be finding ways of managing the situation.

It was in the course of managing the situation that the Assembly, after the defence of the budget, designed the “Bilateral Talk” on the budget, which was held for the first time by the parliament.

In reaction, the Chairman, House Committee on Information and Strategy, Hon. Olatunbosun Oyintiloye, said the session was held to allow government officials brief the Assembly properly on how to ensure effective implementation of the budget.

He said, if the media was present, the government officials in charge of revenue generation might not be able to give appropriate information on revenue drive.

He said there was no any rancour between the executive and the legislature on the budget.