– A number of Journalists have been barred from covering the 2018 budget presentation by President Buhari at the National Assembly.
The budget presentation is scheduled to commence by 2p.m, on Tuesday, with the arrival of the President (who has arrived) but THEWILL can report that some journalists were denied entry into the National assembly premises.
Although, the barred journalists presented their official and National Assembly identity cards to the security operatives, they were told point-blank that a circular was earlier circulated in that regard.
The names of those journalists were missing on an accreditation list prepared by the Research and Information Directorate of the National Assembly as released in the circular.
THEWILL recalls that the President had written to the National Assembly, last week, seeking to present the 2018 Appropriation Bill on Tuesday Nov 7.
The Government plans to spend about N8.6tn next year, a jump of about 15 percent from the N7.44tn budgeted for the current year, as contained in the 2018-2020 Medium Term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategy Paper, which President Buhari had earlier sent to the National Assembly in compliance with the provisions of the Fiscal Responsibility Act, 2007.
