PEPT: PDP Set to Present 100 Witnesses as Court Frowns at Phones in Courtroom

Chris Uche, SAN, the lead counsel to the Peoples Democratic Party and its Presidential Candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, has said that they have 100 witnesses to the case it filed against the Independent National Electoral Commission, President-Elect Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

“My Lord, concerning time, we want to reduce our time, we are very mindful that the new amendment Paragraph 41 (10) has now elapsed the time for petitioners”.

“The New Act has given 7 weeks but we may take just 3 weeks to conclude this because the issues are getting clearer and narrower based on the constitution especially the issue of FCT and if that can be sorted and isolated, this case may even be concluded before May 29th”.

This was opposed by the counsel to INEC,  Mahmoud SAN who stated that two witnesses should be allowed for the PDP and Mr Abubakar but 35 witnesses should be presented for the APC and 39 witnesses for Tinubu.

However, Judge Tsammani asked the entire court to read Paragraph 15 of the Electoral Act.

Meanwhile, the Court of Appeal, on Saturday,  stated that no phones will be allowed in the courtroom from Monday, 22nd May 2023 at the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal.

This was made known as the court resumed hearing for the cases between the Peoples Democratic Party, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, Labour Party, Peter Obi against the Independent National Electoral Commission, and President-Elect Bola Ahmed Tinubu.