By Emman Ovuakporie

ABUJA — BARELY two weeks to the 2015 general elections and as  campaigns rage on, lawmakers in the House of Representatives have developed the habit of conducting secret budget defence away from the prying eyes of journalists.

This deliberate black-out in budget defence, according to some lawmakers, who spoke on condition of anonymity, might be in connection with the quest to mop up needed funds for campaign in the case of those who won return tickets for re-election on the one hand, and those seeking settlement as severance packages from Ministries, Departments and Agencies, MDAs, due to their inability to get return ticket in June 2015.

Of all the budget defence meetings held between Monday and yesterday, none was done in the open for the media to inform Nigerians of what MDAs did with their allocations for 2014, and what they hoped to get and spend in the 2015 fiscal year.

On Tuesday, the House Committee on Information held its budget defence meeting where all heads of government media organisations, such as the Nigerian Television Authority, NTA; Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria, FRCN; News Agency of Nigeria, NAN; the Voice of Nigeria ,VON, as well as the Nigerian Broadcasting Commission, NBC, among others, were present.