Ofure05
The presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi, says he has lined up 50 witnesses to prove his petition against the All Progressives Congress (APC) Bola Tinubus victory as Nigerias presidentelect.
Others sued in the case Mr Tinubu, the APC, and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) also gave the numbers of witnesses they would call at a hearing of the Presidential Election Petition Court in Abuja on Saturday.
The lawyers to the parties spoke while giving the court their reports of the courts prehearing sessions, which began about two weeks ago.
Similar session was held earlier on Saturday in the case filed by Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) against Mr Tinubus election.
The reports given by the lawyers are subject to the approval of the court.
The witnesses will also be crossexamined by adverse parties legal teams.
Highlighting the prehearing session report on Saturday, Mr Obis lawyer, Awa Kalu, told the court that his client would need seven weeks to substantiate his claims of electoral fraud against INECs conduct of the 25 February presidential election.
I was at a meeting this morning with the respondents (APC, INEC and Mr Tinubus legal team), Mr Kalu, a law professor and Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) told the court.
In terms of the scheduling, the petitioner will require seven weeks, Mr Kalu said.
He said Mr Obis legal team was still having a few hiccups with INEC in trying to have a forensic examination of the Bimodal Voters Accreditation System (BVAS) machines.
But INECs lawyer, Abubakar Mahmoud, a SAN, disagreed with Mr Kalus submission concerning difficulty in accessing electoral documents.
We have 50 witnesses.
The courts ruling on the proposals will herald a critical stage in the hearing where parties will call witnesses to testify.
Keypoints
- INEC, APC, Tinubu assemble 30 witnesses
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