Presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP) in the 2023 general elections, Peter Obi, has requested seven weeks to call 50 witnesses to prove his case against the President-elect, Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
The request was made on Saturday, during the continuation of the pre-hearing case before the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) in Abuja.
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Addressing the five-member panel of the court led by Justice Haruna Tsammani, on Saturday, Obi, through his team of lawyers led by Prof. Awa Kalu, SAN, said he was constrained to demand for the seven weeks because of “a few hiccups” he encountered at INEC.
“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,” Kalu said.
He told the court that the parties agreed to give 30 minutes for star witnesses in the matter to present their evidence-in-chief, excluding the time for possible demonstration of any electronic evidence.
The parties also agreed to use 20 minutes each to cross-examine the witnesses, another five minutes would be used for their re-examination.
On its part, INEC, through its lawyer, Abubakar Mahmood (SAN), said it had no agreement with either Obi or the LP on time to be allocated to the witnesses. The electoral body equally denied being aware of any hiccups being faced by the petitioners.
“I have no knowledge of such hiccups. I had earlier assured the lead counsel for the petitioners, Dr. Livy Uzoukwu, SAN, that I would be available to assist him in any way that I can, should he encounter any difficulty. So far, I have not received such a complaint from him,” said Mahmood, adding that INEC, which is the 1st respondent in the matter, would need three days to present its two witnesses.
The President-elect, Tinubu, through his lawyer, Roland Otaru (SAN), said he would require nine days to call a total of 21 witnesses, excluding expert witnesses, to defend his election victory.
Also, 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 said they must be given 48 hours’ notice before any expert witness would be brought to testify in the matter.