Peter Obi Request for 7 Weeks To Prove ‘Election Rigging’ in the Presidential Tribunal
In order to prove that the 2023 presidential election was rigged against him, Peter Obi, the Labour Party’s candidate, promised to call 50 witnesses and submit 50 pieces of proof.
During the hearings on the petition he lodged to challenge Bola Tinubu as the “president-elect,” Peter Obi, who made this known on Saturday, wanted seven weeks to produce witnesses to support his case at the Presidential Election Petition Court.
He said that he was confined in addition to a few hiccups he faced at the Independent National Electoral Commission, which is why he requested seven weeks while speaking before the court through his team of attorneys lead by Prof. Awa Kalu, SAN.
My lords, INEC is still having some issues as a result of the court’s decision from March 8 telling them to permit us to conduct a forensic analysis of the BVAS, he stated. They refused to let us.
Prof. Kalu continued, “We are also waiting for some documents we requested from them.”
His legal team also consented to give key witnesses 30 minutes to submit their main testimony, ignoring the potential need to demonstrate any electronic evidence. Vanguard stated that the parties also agreed to give the witnesses 20 minutes each for cross-examination and an additional 5 minutes for re-examination.
However, INEC said through its attorney, Mr. Abubakar Mahmood, SAN, that neither Peter Obi nor the LP had reached an understanding over the amount of time to 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 triumph.
Niyi Akintola, SAN, the APC’s attorney, also stated that the party would only bring seven witnesses to testify in the case, omitting those who would be subpoenaed.
He pointed out that defending Tinubu’s election would only take nine days, and he said that Peter Obi and the LP had simply frontloaded the testimony of three witnesses.
In the meanwhile, every respondent stated that they needed 48 hours’ notice before any expert witnesses were called to testify.
