In the 2023 presidential election petition filed by Mr. Peter Obi, the Labour Party candidate, he requested seven weeks to produce witnesses in order to establish his case at the Presidential Election Petition Court. He claimed that he would present 50 witnesses who would testify and provide prove to support his claim that the election was rigged against him.
Obi’s legal team, led by Prof. Awa Kalu, SAN, informed the court about the challenges they faced at the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and their request for additional time. They mentioned that INEC had not allowed them to carry out a forensic examination of the Biometric Voter Authentication System (BVAS), as directed by the court on March 8. They were also awaiting some requested documents from INEC.
According to Obi’s counsel, the star witnesses would be given 30 minutes each to present their evidence-in-chief, excluding any time required for electronic evidence demonstration. Cross-examination would be allotted 20 minutes for each party, with an additional five minutes for re-examination.
However, INEC, represented by Mr. Abubakar Mahmood, SAN, denied having any agreement with Obi or the Labour Party regarding the time allocated to the witnesses. They also stated that they were not aware of any hiccups faced by the petitioners. INEC requested three days to present its two witnesses.
On behalf of the President-elect, Bola Tinubu, his lawyer, Roland Otaru, SAN, mentioned that they would require nine days to call a total of 21 witnesses, excluding expert witnesses, to defend Tinubu’s election victory.
The All Progressives Congress (APC), represented by Niyi Akintola, SAN, stated that they would call only seven witnesses, excluding those to be subpoenaed. They estimated that nine days would be sufficient to defend Tinubu’s election. Obi and the Labour Party were accused of frontloading statements from only three witnesses. All respondents requested a 48-hour notice before any expert witness was brought in to testify in the case.
