Prime Minister Patrick Manning said it was he who had called yesterday’s meeting with Opposition Leader Basdeo Panday, and not the other way around. He did so just before the meeting’s start at the Diplomatic Centre, St Ann’s.

When Panday arrived for the meeting, he was escorted into the building by the prime minister but less than a minute later, both walked back towards the front steps where Manning said:

’We wanted to begin the meeting by clarifying an erroneous report in the media, and that is that the meeting was called on the insistence of the Leader of the Opposition. That is not true, okay, and that has been in the media all morning. On Friday, the prime minister asked the Leader of the Opposition to speak with him behind the Speaker’s chair. We went there and I invited him to a meeting.’

He said he had suggested to Panday that they meet today, but after the Opposition Leader ’was kind enough to accept’ his invitation, they decided to meet yesterday.

’I told the prime minister that I do not think that we should start this meeting with a lie. It was an extremely important meeting, and I do not think that we should preface it with an untruth and, therefore, I would like that untruth to be cleared up before this meeting started,’ Panday said.

Panday said Manning suggested this could be done with the meeting being held on another day.

’And I said no, this is very important. You would have put time aside and I,’ Panday said.

The matter having been cleared up, both men left for their meeting.

During a news conference held at the Office of the Leader of the Opposition in Port of Spain, Panday again disclosed that he presented Manning with a specific crime recommendation that would see the formation of a task force made up of representatives of all the nation’s political parties and non-governmental organisations.

Asked if he was taking a political risk by even meeting with Manning yesterday, Panday said, ’I have a duty to perform, and that means meeting with the prime minister.’