According to the Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal, it disqualified 10 of the 13 witnesses that Peter Obi, the Labour Party’s presidential candidate, provided.
This was said on Wednesday by Justice Haruna Tsammani, who was appointed to rule on the substantive petition submitted by Obi and LP.
Tsammani said that Obi called 13 witnesses, who gave testimony as PW1 through PW13. She also noted that only three of the 13 witnesses had statements that were filed with the petition under oath.
The Justice claimed that the remaining 10 witnesses were subpoenaed and that their sworn witness statements were only submitted after the hearing had begun.
According to Tsammani, every witness testimony taken under oath must be submitted with the petition in accordance with section 285 of the Nigerian constitution, section 137(7) of the Electoral Act 2022, and other requirements.
According to the Supreme Court’s precedent, an election petition cannot be changed after the allotted 21-day period for filing it has passed.
The Justice said that as the respondents would not have a chance to react after the prescribed window closed, no supplementary statement under oath may be filed.
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The petitioners, according to Tsammani, were aware of the legal requirement for the filing of witness statements under oath but still proceeded to present 10 witnesses without having their witness statements under oath previously filed with the petition.
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