Barely 24 hours after the Management of the National Assembly (NASS), revoked the accreditation of Media organizations covering the activities of the both Chambers and came up with stringent guidelines for fresh accreditations which sparked off controversies, the Clerk to the National Assembly, CNA, Alhaji Sani Omolori and the Chairman of the National Assembly, who is also the President of the Senate, Senator Bukola Saraki on Tuesday disowned the new guidelines.
NASS Director of Information and Publication, Mr Rawlings Agada had on Monday issued the unauthorised guidelines which said would take effect from June. 11 this year but which the duo disowned yesterday.
It gathered that Omolori who held a meeting with the leadership of the Senate and House of Representatives Press Corps yesterday apologised for the embarrassment caused by the unapproved memo and ordered its immediate suspended indefinitely.
In a related development, Senator Bukola Saraki through his Special Assistant on New Media, Olu Onemola denied knowledge of the draconian regulation credited to Agada and ordered an investigation into the embarrassing memo.
Onemola stated that his principal remained committed to the freedom of the press and was not aware of the development.
Responding in a series of tweets about the alleged new guidelines for journalists in the National Assembly, Onemola stated that Saraki’s antecedents as the Chairman of the 8th National Assembly showed that he had always believed in the right of Journalists to operate unhindered in order to promote transparency.
The New Media aide also emphasized that the purported issuance of the controversial guidelines would be promptly investigated.
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