LP: Why We Presented Few Witnesses Contrary to Proposed 50

Emameh Gabriel in Abuja

Spokesperson of the Labour Party Presidential Campaign Council and one of the witnesses,who testified for the party at the ongoing presidential election petition tribunal, Dr. Tanko Yunusa, has explained that the party could only feature about 10 witnesses due to limited time granted by the court.
 Candidate of the Labour Party in the 2023 presidential election, Peter Obi, had declared in May that he would present 50 witnesses that would testify and tender evidence to establish that the 2023 presidential election was rigged against him.

 Obi had on Friday last week closed his case after he was able to present only 10 witnesses out of the 50 earlier lined up to testify against the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

 This was, however, trailed with criticisms from some section of the public, especially members of the ruling All Progressive Congress, who shaded Obi and his counsel in the wake of the development, describing them as unserious challengers.

 But in an exclusive telephone interview with THISDAY yesterday, Tanko said it was an agreement among all parties to have no less than 10 witnesses to save time, and confirmed that despite this, some of their witnesses could not make it due to time and circumstances.

“It has to do with the relationship of the processes, because it was that there would be time allocated to those who would defend, who would ask questions and cross examination. Time were allocated, like for you if you are presenting a witness, you have 30 minutes and then the cross examination, 15 to 20 minutes.

 “It was also agreed that despite all your proceedings, you have not less than 10 witnesses. It was an agreement between all the lawyers in the court that this is how the process will go in order to manage time, that whatever 50 witnesses can do, 10 can also do within the short period of time. You may end up finding out that even INEC may just have only two witnesses and may not even present them.

 “We did even well to present all our witnesses. Some of them couldn’t travel because of the period and time to meet up with the remaining ones that we wanted to present,” he said.
Asked if he was satisfied and had confidence in the process, he said: “I have hope. I don’t want to say confidence because anything can go in our judicial system considering what we have witnessed in the past and what can be in the future. But I am hopeful that the outcome would be in the favour of the Nigerian people.”