On Saturday, Mr. Peter Obi, the Labour Party’s nominee for president in 2023, “asked seven weeks to gather witnesses to support his claims in front of the Presidential Election Petition Court.”
According to Vanguard, “The 2023 presidential election was rigged against him, he added, and he would provide 50 witnesses who would testify and present evidence to support this claim.”
During the proceedings on the case he filed to challenge Bola Tinubu, the president-elect, Obi revealed this on Saturday.
Speaking to the court through his group of attorneys under the direction of Prof. Awa Kalu, SAN, he said that, “he had limitations in addition to a few glitches he ran into at the Independent National Electoral Commission, which is why he requested seven weeks.” Source stated.
His attorney said, “My lords, we still have some snags at INEC due to the order that was made by this court on March 8 instructing them to permit us to conduct a forensic investigation of the BVAS. We were not permitted by them.”
Prof. Kalu continued, “We’re also waiting for some of the documents we asked them for.”
Vanguard reported that, “The star witnesses would be permitted 30 minutes to offer their main testimony, omitting any potential time for the exhibition of any electronic evidence, according to an agreement reached by his legal team.”
Obi’s attorney also stated that, “the parties had agreed to give the witnesses 20 minutes apiece for cross-examination and an additional 5 minutes for re-examination,” according to Vanguard.
However, INEC said through its attorney, Mr. Abubakar Mahmood, SAN, “that neither Obi nor the LP had reached an understanding over the amount of time to be given to the witnesses.”
They also said they were not aware of any difficulties the petitioners were having.
The first respondent in the case, INEC, stated that in order to present its two witnesses, three days would be required.
In order to defend his election victory, the President-elect Tinubu, through his attorney Roland Otaru, SAN, stated that, “he would need nine days and call a total of 21 witnesses, excluding expert witnesses.”
Vanguard further reported, In a similar vein, the APC’s legal representative Niyi Akintola, SAN, stated that, “the party would only summon seven witnesses to testify in the case—excluding those who would be subpoenaed.”
