Both the number of witnesses and the time allotted for each party to call witnesses were agreed upon by all parties to the lawsuit.
Atiku Abubakar, the PDP’s presidential candidate, has stated that “no more than 100 witnesses” will be called before the Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal (PEPT).
The proclamation of Bola Tinubu, the winner of the February 25 presidential election and member of the All Progressives Congress (APC), is being contested by both parties.
Speaking before the court in Abuja on Saturday, Chris Uche, the attorney for Atiku and the PDP, stated that all parties had met, discussed, and decided on the number of witnesses, time, and style of the witness examination.
Although they now have seven weeks to call the witnesses, Uche continued, they would actually need three weeks because the concerns were becoming more specific.
Both the number of witnesses and the time allotted for each party to call witnesses were agreed upon by all parties to the lawsuit.
Due to the fact that they would present and identify documents, they divided the main evidence into 30 minutes for the lead witness.
Additionally, they suggested five minutes for a re-examination of the petitioners’ main witness and 15 minutes for cross-examining each respondent. A further 10 minutes was suggested for the petitioners’ additional witnesses, as well as 10 minutes for the respondents’ cross-examination of these witnesses.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Tinubu, and the APC were the main witnesses for the respondents. The respondents offered 30 minutes for their star witnesses, while the respondents also suggested 30 minutes for cross-examining their witness.
In contrast to the counsel for the president-elect, who claimed to have 39 witnesses prepared, INEC stated that it will call only two witnesses.
Any star witness’s report should be made accessible to the President-elect 48 hours before hearing.
Before the hearing and the summoning of witnesses, the other parties must receive the schedule of papers to be filed.
Experts and other notable witnesses were scheduled for a 20-minute examination, while responders were given a 30-minute opportunity to answer. Five minutes were allotted for the re-examination.
In addition, the time allotted for the examination of non-experts and the star witness was 10 minutes, cross-examination was 15 minutes, and re-examination was 5 minutes.
The APC is no different. There are 25 witnesses scheduled to testify, which is the sole difference.
