The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, has proposed to call 100 witnesses for his petition at the Presidential Election Petitions Court.
This is more than what the electoral umpire the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has proposed.
INEC wants 22 witnesses called, Bola Tinubu, 39 and the All Progressives Congress (APC), 25 and Labour Party 50 to defend their petitions.
This is contained in the modalities being proposed for the main hearing of the petition of Atiku on the outcome of the February 25 presidential election.
The parties also proposed to allocate more time for the main examination of star witnesses and expert witnesses by 20 to 30 minutes, some of them to be subpoenaed, to present their testimony on oath.
According to Daily Trust, the lead counsel to Atiku, Chris Uche (SAN), said although the law permits seven weeks to present their witnesses, they would need only about three weeks to do so.
The issues are narrower and are mostly constitutional; so they won’t require much time to determine. For instance, the issue of FCT
Meanwhile, the Presidential Election Petitions Court has adjourned till Monday, May 22, for report on the consolidation of modalities for the hearing of the petitions of the three remaining political parties.
(C) ControlTV 2023.
