Some committees lock out journalists

Some committees of the National Conference barred journalists from covering their sittings yesterday.

The 20 committees sat at the National Judicial Institute (NJI) and NICON Luxury Hotel Abuja.

Daily Trust observed that most of the committees have allowed journalists to cover their proceedings at the beginning.

In NICON Luxury, for instance, journalists were allowed to cover nine of the 10 committees that sat there.

Only committee on land tenure and national boundaries prevented journalists from covering its proceedings.

Journalists covered proceedings of committees on civil society, labour and sports; public service; political parties and electoral matters; foreign policy and diaspora matters; economy, trade and investment; energy; religion; public finance and revenue; and Immigration and related matters.

In NJI also, journalists were allowed to cover the proceedings of the committees on political restructuring and forms of government, national security, among others.

Journalists were also allowed into committees such as politics and governance, social sector, agriculture, among others during the early hours of the day.

The conference secretariat didn’t indicate that journalists will be locked out from some committees’ sittings last week when the conference dissolved into committees.