Former head of service and deputy chairman of the Petroleum Revenue Special Task Force, Mr. Steve Oronsaye, has dismissed suggestion that his appointment to the board of NNPC had compromised his objectivity with regard to his job as a member of the committee.
In a telephone interview with THISDAY last night, Oronsaye said his appointment could not have influenced his rejection of aspects of the committee’s operations given that he had already done so long before he was appointed to the board. “I made my reservations known to him months ago and then I had not been appointed to the NNPC. This is contrary to what he’s suggesting.”
Oronsaye maintained that his disagreement was borne out of his inclination as a “process person”, adding that the committee was carrying out its job like a probe committee and not an administrative committee that it is. “The language was bad and subjective and some of the figures it was putting forward were not reconciled. If we have to submit a report and it is not factual, it would not stand the test of time. If the foundation of an elegant building is faulty, it would definitely crumble,” he said.
On the allegation that he barely attended the committee’s meetings, his rebuttal was just as vehement. According to him, he had informed the president from the outset that he was already serving on an equally important committee which would affect his attendance. “Despite that, it’s untrue that I was hardly at the committee’s meetings.”
Oronsaye also refuted Ribadu’s statement to journalists that the report submitted by the committee was essentially the same as that published by Reuters last week.  
YNaija.com