The Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal said it
rejected 10 out of 13 witnesses presented by the Presidential candidate of the
Labour Party, Peter Obi.
Justice Haruna Tsammani, who took over to deliver judgment
on the substantive petition filed by Obi and LP, said this on Wednesday.
Tsammani said Obi called 13 witnesses, who testified as PW1
to PW13, noting that of the 13 witnesses, only three witnesses whose statements
are on oath, were filed along with the petition.
The remaining 10 witnesses, the Justice said, were
subpoenaed and their witness statements on oath were only filed after the
hearing started.
Tsammani held that by virtue of section 285 of the Nigerian
constitution, section 137(7) of the Electoral Act 2022, and other provisions,
every witness statement on oath must be filed along with the petition.
He said that based on the Supreme Court authority, once the
21-day window for filing an election petition elapses, the content of the
petition cannot be amended.
The Justice stated further that no additional statement on
oath can be filed after the close of the specified window since the respondents
would not have the opportunity to respond.
Tsammani said the petitioners were aware of the legal
provision relating to the filing of witness statements on oath, yet went ahead
to present 10 witnesses without their witness statements on oath earlier filed
with the petition.
Details later…
Advertise on NigerianEye.com to reach thousands of our daily users
No comments
Post a Comment
Kindly drop a comment below.
(Comments are moderated. Clean comments will be approved immediately)
Advert Enquires - Reach out to us at NigerianEye@gmail.com