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Exactly 11 days after the Chief Security Officer to President Muhammadu Buhari, Bashir Abubakar, expelled the state house correspondent of Punch Newspaper, Olalekan Adetayo, over a story on the President’s state of health, the Senate has barred photojournalists and camera men from covering Senate proceedings.
This followed a circular signed by Clerk of the Senate Nelson Oyewoh on Thursday.
Although the document which was posted at the entrance to the hallowed chamber listed only six media houses that would cover proceedings, the camera men boycotted coverage of the session in solidarity with their colleagues.
According to them, this was another way to gag the Press.
The document listed the media houses to include Nigeria Television Authority (NTA), African Independent Television (AIT), Channels, Silverbird, Television Continental (TVC) and Newage.
This follows a similar move in January when the number of cameramen and photojournalists covering the Senate were reduced from about 40 to 13.
Officials have said the arrangement was to dicongest the Senate and establish an atmosphere of orderliness in the chamber.
The development comes 24 hours after Senate President Bukola Saraki, assured Senate correspondents, as part of activities to mark the World Press Freedom Day, of unfettered access to information to carry out their constitutional duties.
In a swift reaction, the Senate Press Corps condemned the action of the National Assembly bureaucracy.
In a letter written by its chairman Cosmos Ekpunobi on Thursday, the Corps described the action as ‘unhealthy’ and a recipe for avoidable friction’.
The letter addressed to the chairman, Senate Committee on Media and Public Affairs Aliyu Abdullahi, read in part: “The attention of the Senate Press Corps leadership has been drawn to a decision of the Senate bureaucracy to further reduce the number of television news crews (cameramen) covering the senate plenary from 13 to 6. The change came into operation today, precipitating the reported boycott of the cameramen today of all Senate proceedings.
“Recall Sir that we had a meeting on Wednesday with the Clerk of the Senate on the subject matter, during which he raised some challenges and alleged misconduct by some of our colleagues.
“The leadership of the Senate Press Corps however accepted to call our erring members to order and to get back to the Clerk for further action. We expected the Clerk to also rescind his decision pending the outcome of our meeting with the Cameramen today.
“We want to reiterate here that the Senate Press Corps leadership will never condone any unprofessional conduct by any of our members, even though we have been told that there are other cameramen covering the chamber who are not our registered members but are brought in by principal officers and other senators. We had since referred the said misconduct to our disciplinary committee for necessary action”.
OWEDE AGBAJILEKE, Abuja
