PDP to present 400 Witnesses at Tribunal

The Peoples Democratic Party on Monday, 1st June, says it has over 400 witnesses to present at the election petition tribunal in challenge of President Muhammadu Buhari’s reelection as being heard.


This was a response by the party’s lead counsel, Levi Uzeugwu, in response to a question by the tribunal chairman, Mohammed Garba, on Monday.

This is intended to help the tribunal arrange a timetable for hearing of the substantive application.

Mr Uzeugwu however added that if they were able to present 300 witnesses before the close of time allowed for the applicants to prove their case, they would review their position.

“We have over 400 witnesses. But if we are able to present up to 300 we will review our case,” Mr Uzuegwu said.

He had been asked by Mr Garba to note the number of witnesses they had so that the court would decide on the duration of time to be allowed for each party to cross examine the witnesses.

After a brief explanation on the need for the parties to consider time, Mr Uzuegwu requested the court to stand down for 30 minutes in order to decide on which witnesses they would bring and help the court in planning its schedule.

The request was granted. The court is currently on a recess for 30 minutes.

The court had earlier reserved its ruling in the pre-hearing application brought by the PDP challenging the June 11 decision of the Court, which saw the withdrawal of a motion by the APC.

The motion withdrawn by the APC on June 11 was one of two similar motions earlier filed by the party, challenging the validity of the PDP’s petition.

Following an observation by the PDP that the two motions were same the applicants withdrew one of the motions.

The PDP however objected that withdrawal because the party believed that the motion ought to have been struck out, rather than been withdrawn.