After many days of waiting, pre-hearing and counter motions, the Presidential elections petitions trbunal has granted Atiku and the PDP 10 days to prove Buhari rigged the presidential election , while the All Progressives Congress (APC), Muhammadu Buhari and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) six days to defend themselves.
The lead counsel to the PDP, Livy Uzoukwu, confirmed that this is to abridge the process of hearing The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar.
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The presidential election petition tribunal made of a five-man panel and headed by Justice Mohammed Garba took the decision after a brief meeting that was held by the lead counsels to all the parties in the matter. Vanguard reports that the tribunal also asked Buhari, the All progressives Congress (APC) and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), to defend the petition against them by the PDP and Atiku within six days.
Justice Garba had earlier noted that by the provisions of the electoral law, the petitioners were allowed a maximum of 14 days to present their case against the exercise. Garba also noted that each of the respondents would take 10 days to enter their defense. At the resumption of a 30-minute stand-down, the lead counsel to the petitioners, Livy Uzoukwu, told the court that all the parties had agreed that the time should be abridged. According to Uzoukwu, Atiku and the PDP had lined up a total of 400 witnesses that would be called to testify and give evidence in the course of the hearing. “We intend to call many witnesses as possible within the prescribed time,” he told the court. He added that the parties were in agreement that they would tender documents and reserve objections till the final written address. “We, however, agreed to isolate the objections from the final address of parties,” he said. Uzoukwu also said the respondents had agreed to given seven days within which to file, while petitioners would take five days after service of the respondents’ address, to do their own.