Election petition: Atiku to call 100 witnesses in three weeks

The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party in the February 25 election, Atiku Abubakar, has requested three weeks to call 100 witnesses to prove his case against the President-elect, Bola Tinubu.

Atiku and the PDP, at the proceedings before the Presidential Election Petition Court, 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,” the lawyer noted.

While the President-elect, Tinubu, said he would only need two days to discredit Atiku’s case, the Independent National Electoral Commission, through its lawyer, Abubakar Mahmood, SAN, told the court that it would only call two witnesses.

The All Progressives Congress through its lawyer, Mr Solomon Umoh, SAN, noted that it would also need two days to produce 39 witnesses.

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.

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.