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The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate in the just-concluded general elections, Atiku Abubakar, has asked the court to grant him three weeks to call 100 witnesses to prove his case against the President-elect, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu.
Atiku, the former Vice President, is challenging the outcome of the February 25 election that produced the former Lagos State Governor as the President-elect.
At the resumed proceedings of the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) sitting in Abuja on Saturday, May 20, 2023, Atiku and his party, speaking through their legal team led by Chief Chris Uche, SAN, disclosed that they have lined up expert witnesses among others who will be compelled to mount the witness box to testify in the matter.
“We may not even exhaust the three weeks because the issues are getting narrower,“ Atiku’s lawyer, Uche added.
Conversely, the President-elect, through his legal team, said he would only need two days to counter Atiku's claims, just as the lawyer representing the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Abubakar Mahmood, told the court he would on call two witnesses to deflate the former Vice President's argument.
While telling the court that his client would call 39 witnesses to testify, Tinubu's lead counsel at the proceedings, Roland Otaro, SAN, further disclosed that other persons may also be subpoenaed to appear before the court as witnesses.
The lawyer representing the All Progressives Congress, Solomon Umoh, SAN, also said he would need two days to call 39 witnesses to testify before the court.
Atiku and the PDP dragged Tinubu and INEC before the PEPC to ask for, among other things, the revocation of the Certificate of Return issued to the APC candidate over claims that he didn't constitutionally merit it.
The petitioners argued that Tinubu's declaration as the winner of the controversial election was “invalid by reason of non-compliance with the provisions of the Electoral Act, 2022”.
Atiku, who argued that Tinubu was not duly elected by the majority of lawful votes cast, asked the court to declare him the of the presidential election claiming that he secured the second-highest number of lawful votes cast in the exercise.