As the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal hearing enters a critical stage of the trial - 141 witnesses are to be called by Atiku, Tinubu and INEC.

As the proceedings of the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal Court in Abuja are set to enter a critical stage of the trial, after about two weeks of pre-hearing sessions on Saturday, 20 May 2023; the lawyers to the parties gave the outlook of the make-up of their witnesses.

The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar says he intends to call 100 witnesses to prove his case against Bola Tinubu’s victory as Nigeria’s president-elect.

The President-Elect, Bola Ahmed Tinubu also says he is prepared to defend his victory with 39 witnesses in Atiku’s case – one of the three petitions challenging the president-elect’s success at the 25 February 2023 presidential election.

Through Tinubu’s inauguration as Nigeria’s next president is only about nine days away, the trial is expected to stretch months into his presidency. The entire election petition litigation may not end until December as aggrieved parties still have the right to challenge the outcome of the ongoing proceedings at the Supreme Court.

Atiku is challenging INEC’s declaration of All Progressives Congress (APC)’s Tinubu as the winner of the last presidential election.

Atiku, a former Nigerian Vice President, accused the electoral umpire and Tinubu of violating statutory provisions that guided the conduct of the recent election.

Two other petitions, one of which is by the Labour Party and its presidential candidate, Peter Obi, also levelled similar allegations in calling for a fresh election.

At the resumed proceedings of the Presidential Election Petition Court on Saturday, Atiku’s lead counsel, Chris Uche, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), reeled out the agreements of parties to the suit concerning the number of witnesses to be called, the allotted time for witnesses to testify and the procedures for tendering documents from expert witnesses.

“We intend to call not more than one hundred witnesses. For the time, we want to take three weeks instead of the statutory seven weeks,” Barr. Uche said. “We have also agreed to streamline the number of witnesses as well as the duration for each party to call witnesses, subject to ratification by the court.”

Barr. Uche said lawyers to parties in the petition agreed the star witnesses for both the petitioners and respondents would have 30 minutes each to testify.

“We are proposing 30 minutes each for star witnesses, while we are proposing 15 minutes for each respondent for cross-examination and five minutes for re-examination.”

He revealed that other witnesses would take 10 minutes for cross-examination, while re-examination of witnesses would take five minutes.

At the pre-hearing session on Saturday, Mr Tinubu’s lawyer, Roland Otaru, a SAN, said his client would present 39 witnesses to aid his defence at the court.

Mr Otaru said Tinubu’s legal team led by Wole Olanipekun would need “nine days” to prove its case.

“The report of any expert witness must be made available to other parties 48 hours before the calling of such witnesses.

“We also agreed that the schedule of documents to be filed by parties must be served on all parties before the calling of witnesses,” Mr Otaru told the court.

However, he proposed 20 instead of the 30 minutes that was proposed by Mr Uche for expert witnesses to testify.

On his part, INEC’s lawyer, Abubakar Mahmoud, informed the court that the electoral umpire would call two witnesses.

The APC represented by Solomon Umoh, a SAN, disclosed that the party would present 25 witnesses to defend its victory.

The APC, INEC, the President-Elect, Bola Tinubu and the Vice President-elect, Kashim Shettima are respondents in the petition.

After listening to the proposals for the hearing of the substantive petition, the five-member panel of the Court headed by Justice Haruna Tsammani, adjourned the suit until Monday, 22 May 2023.

Justice Tsammani directed parties in the petition to address the court on the issue of consolidation of the three petitions challenging Bola Tinubu’s victory.

The Labour Party and its presidential candidate, Peter Obi and the Allied Peoples Movement (APM) filed separate petitions to upturn Bola Tinubu’s victory.