The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Monday said it would not call any witness to defend its case against the petition filed by the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and its presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, DAILY POST reports.<\/p>\n
PDP and Atiku are challenging the outcome of the February 23 presidential election which INEC by its results, declared President Muhammadu Buhari and his All Progressives Congress, APC, as winner.<\/p>\n
But the petitioners closed their case with 62 witnesses on July 19 after which the five-man tribunal led by Justice Mohammed Garba adjourned further proceedings till Monday for INEC to open its defence.<\/p>\n
The tribunal had adjourned till July 29 for the first respondent, INEC, to open its defence.<\/p>\n
But when the tribunal called INEC to open its case, the electoral umpire\u2019s lawyer, Yunus Usman (SAN), affirmed before the tribunal that it would not be necessary on the grounds that the evidence extracted from the petitioners\u2019 witnesses during cross-examination was in support of the commission\u2019s case.<\/p>\n
In his words, \u201cWe have painstakingly reviewed the evidence of petitioners\u2019 witnesses.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have also painstakingly studied the petitioners\u2019 evidence under cross-examination, which supports our defence and our denial in consonance with our pleadings.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy lords, we do not see the need to waste your lordship\u2019s precious time by repeating what their witnesses have repeated under cross-examination.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn that circumstance, we will not call any witness to help them prove their case.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe, therefore, rely on the evidence of their witness under cross-examination.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, Buhari\u2019s lawyer, Chief Wole Olanipekun (SAN), asked to be allowed to open his client\u2019s case at 2:00 pm on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
APC\u2019s lawyer, Lateef Fagbemi (SAN) asserted that his decision on whether or not to call witnesses would depend on the case to be presented by Buhari\u2019s legal team.<\/p>\n
On his part, the petitioners\u2019 lawyer, Dr. Livy Uzoukwu (SAN), thanked INEC\u2019s legal team for not calling witnesses.<\/p>\n
\u201cI profusely thank my brother and friend for deciding not to call any witness,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
But proceedings were adjourned till Tuesday for Buhari to open his defence.\u200e<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Monday said it would not call any witness to defend its case against the petition filed by the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and its presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, DAILY POST reports. PDP and Atiku are challenging the outcome of the February 23 presidential election which INEC by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":62,"featured_media":13468,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,16],"tags":[97,204,251,729],"class_list":["post-13467","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-parties","tag-buhari","tag-government","tag-inec","tag-san"],"yoast_head":"\n