The Chairman, Senate Committee on Appropriation, Barau Jibrin, said on Friday that the leadership of the red chamber did not approve the behind —closed door sessions adopted by panels scrutinising 2020 budgets by federal agencies at the National Assembly.

Barau, who spoke with journalists, said budget defence sessions were supposed to be conducted in the open not secretly as widely reported in the media on Friday.

He said, “Neither the Senate as a body nor the Appropriation Committee coordinating the entire process gave such a directive to any committee to hold budget defence sessions in secret with officials from the executive arm of government.

“I saw the story in the papers today and I’m not happy about it if actually the method was carried out by the affected committees. I know that such a trend will not continue from next week because Nigerians suppose to know what the parliament and the executive are preparing or planning for them.

“The budgets being discussed or defended by the affected agencies are, more or less, for Nigerians; the very reason such assignment should be carried out in the open, with journalists in attendance to report details of what transpired at each of the sessions.”

He, however, clarified that closed session may be held by committees over sighting the military , police and other security agencies at certain stages for security reasons.

“For security reasons, committees over sighting the various military outfits and police may at critical stage hold closed sessions but this is not expected of other committees, especially on the issue of budget defence, being financial proposals meant for societal advancement,” he added.

Recall that spokesperson for the Senate, Adedayo Adeyeye, justified the secret session engagements between the panels and the federal agencies on Thursday.