The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, who is challenging the outcome of the presidential election that was held on February 25, has requested three weeks to call 100 witnesses to prove his case against the President-elect, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu.
Atiku and his party, at the resumed proceedings before the Presidential Election Petition Court, PEPC, sitting in Abuja, on Saturday, through his legal team led by Chief Chris Uche, SAN, disclosed that among those he has lined up to testify in the matter, would include expert witnesses and those he would ask the court to compel to mount the witness box.
“We may not even exhaust the three weeks because the issues are getting narrower, “Atiku’s lawyer, Uche SAN, added.
While the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, through its lawyer, Abubakar Mahmood, SAN, told the court that it would only call two witnesses, the President-elect, Tinubu, said he would only need two days to deflate Atiku’s case.
Tinubu’s lead counsel at the proceedings, Mr Roland Otaro, SAN, further disclosed that his client would call 39 witnesses to testify before the court, not excluding other persons he may apply to be subpoenaed to appear before the court.
On its part, the All Progressives Congress, APC, Mr Solomon Umoh, SAN, said it would also need two days to call 39 witnesses before the court.
Atiku and the PDP are in their joint petition marked: CA/PEPC/05/2023, praying the court to among other things, withdraw the Certificate of Return that was issued to the President-elect by INEC.
The petitioners maintained that the declaration of Tinubu as the winner of the presidential election was “invalid by reason of non-compliance with the provisions of the Electoral Act, 2022”.
They further argued that Tinubu’s election was invalid by reason of corrupt practices, insisting that he was not duly elected by a majority of lawful votes cast at the election.
Atiku further prayed the court to declare him the winner of the presidential election, having secured the second-highest number of lawful votes cast at the election.