The Allied Peoples Movement (APM) has said that it has only one witness to support its claim that President-elect Asiwaju Bola Tinubu of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) was not the valid winner of the 2023 presidential election.
POLITICS NIGERIA reports that at the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) in Abuja, APM’s lawyer, Mr. S. Abubakar, stated that although they have a sole witness, they will provide ample documentary evidence to substantiate their petition against the President-elect.
Mr. Abubakar informed the court that the parties involved in the petition had met the previous Saturday and agreed upon various modalities for the hearing, including the time allocation for witness examinations.
It was agreed that star witnesses would be given 20 minutes for testimony, cross-examination would be allotted 25 minutes, and re-examination would be limited to five minutes.
The petitioner’s counsel also informed the court that it was decided that the parties must exchange schedules of documents to be relied upon before the hearing and that reports from expert witnesses must be filed and served at least 48 hours in advance.
“Our petition is primarily based on documentary evidence. As per our agreement, any document that will be relied upon, including expert reports, must be furnished to all parties before the hearing,” stated APM’s lawyer.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), represented by its lawyer, Mr. Kemi Pinhero, SAN, stated that it would require one day to present its lone witness.
The APC requested five days to call at least one witness and suggested possibly subpoenaing others.
President-elect Tinubu announced his intention to call three witnesses, while the 5th respondent, Aminu Masari, also expressed plans to call a sole witness in the case.
APM, in its petition with the reference CA/PEPC/04/2023, argued that the withdrawal of Mr. Ibrahim Masari, who was initially nominated as the Vice-Presidential candidate of the APC, invalidated Tinubu’s candidacy under Section 131(c) and 142 of the 1999 Constitution, as amended.
The party contended that there was a three-week gap between Masari’s expression of intent to withdraw, the actual withdrawal of his nomination, and the purported replacement of Masari with Senator Kashim Shettima by Tinubu.
Furthermore, the APM asserted that Tinubu’s candidacy had expired when he nominated Shettima as Masari’s replacement.
According to the petitioner, at the time Tinubu announced Shettima as the Vice Presidential candidate, “he was no longer in a position, constitutionally, to nominate a running mate since he had ceased to be a presidential candidate of the 2nd Respondent having regards to the provisions of section 142 of the 1999 Constitution”.
