Former Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC and Chairman of the Petroleum Revenue Special Task Force, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, lied against his Deputy, Chief Steve Oronsanye over attendance of the Committees meetings.
At the presentation of the final report of the task force to President Goodluck Jonathan Ribadu accused Orosanye of not attending meetings and therefore not in the position to criticize the Report presented.
The former EFCC boss had said during an altercation with Orosanye before a shocked President Goodluck Jonathan that, “He (Orosanye) was not there at the inauguration of the committee and did not participate even for a day.”
“He did not come out to sit down at the time when we came out with our rules and how we are going to conduct the business of the task force. He never participated for a single day, not even for a single hour,” Ribadu told a bewildered President Jonathan and the Petroleum Minister, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke.
But facts from the committee’s minutes of meetings have emerged indicating that the Deputy Chairman of the Petroleum Revenue Special Task Force, Mr. Steve Oronsanye attended two of the three meetings held by the task force.The meetings were all held at the task force at the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency building in Abuja.
From the minutes of meetings held on 3rd, 22nd and 23 May 2012, it was discovered that Oronsanye actually attended the ones held on May 22 and 23 held in Abuja. He did not attend the first one held on May3, 2012.
From the Minutes of May 23, 2012 meeting, Ribadu had informed members that he had been invited by the United States Government in his capacity as the Chairman to participate at a colloquium on June 4, 2012 in Washington. The minutes of the meeting agreed that he attend the event.
In the said meeting, a member also raised some issues, one of which was the importance of spending quality time to conclude activities decided at the meeting after each meeting in order to maximize the time left, while another member raised the issue of lack of external communication of the task force. The Chairman then informed the meeting that he met with the Speaker and Senate committee and they indicated that they were ready to meet with the Task Force.