Peter Obi, the Labour Party’s candidate for president in the 2023 election, urged on Saturday that witnesses be produced for the Presidential Election Petition Court within seven weeks.
Additionally, he declared that he would call 50 witnesses and give evidence to prove that the 2023 presidential election was rigged against him.
Peter Obi disclosed this on Saturday during the proceedings on the petition he filed to challenge the president-elect, Bola Tinubu.
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Addressing the court through his team of lawyers led by Prof. Awa Kalu, SAN, he noted that he was constrained in addition to a few hiccups he encountered at the Independent National Electoral Commission hence the request for seven weeks.
His counsel said, “My lords, we still have a few hiccups at INEC because of the order that was made by this court on March 8, directing them to allow us to carry out a forensic examination of the BVAS. They have not allowed us.
“We are also waiting for some documents we requested from them,” Prof. Kalu added.
His counsel also agreed that star witnesses would be given 30 minutes to present their evidence-in-chief, excluding the time for possible demonstration of any electronic evidence.
Obi’s lawyer also disclosed that parties agreed to use 20 minutes each to cross-examine the witnesses, another five minutes would be used for their re-examination
However, INEC said through its attorney, Mr. Abubakar Mahmood, SAN, that it had made no arrangements with either Peter Obi or the LP regarding how much time would be given to the witnesses.
They also denied knowing about any difficulties the petitioners were having.
The first respondent in the case, INEC, stated that it would require three days to produce its two witnesses.
Through his attorney Roland Otaru, SAN, the President-elect, Tinubu, stated that he would need nine days to call a total of 21 witnesses, excluding expert witnesses, to defend his election victory.
In the same way, counsel for the APC, Niyi Akintola, SAN, said the party would call only seven witnesses, excluding those to be subpoenaed, to testify in the matter.
The APC said it would require only nine days to defend Tinubu’s election, adding that Obi and the LP only frontloaded statements of only three witnesses.
Meanwhile, all the respondents stated they must be given 48 hours notice before any expert witness be brought to testify in the matter.
