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By Emmanuel Adeleke
The Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) has rejected the testimonies and exhibits provided by 10 out of 13 witnesses presented by the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi.
The chairman of the five-member panel, Justice Haruna Tsammani, made the pronouncement while ruling on the petition filed by Obi and his party to challenge the election of President Bola Tinubu.
He said the statements on oath of the 10 witnesses, who were subpoenaed to testify in the case, were not competent and could not be recognised by the court.
According to Justice Tsammani, the statements were not filed along with the petition as of the close of the 21 days within which the petitioners must file their case.
Tsammani, who was ruling on the objection of Tinubu and other respondents in the petition, held that the statements on oath of the witnesses were incompetent.
“They are therefore not the witnesses of this court,” Tsammani ruled.
He said the petitioners were aware of the legal provision relating to the filing of witness statements on oath, yet went ahead to present 10 witnesses without their statements on oath being filed with the petition.
Tsammani said under section 285 of the Nigerian Constitution, section 137(7) of the Electoral Act 2022, and other provisions, every witness statement on oath must be filed along with the petition.
He said that based on the Supreme Court authority, once the 21-day window for filing an election petition lapses, the content of the petition cannot be amended.
He stressed that no additional statement on oath can be filed after the close of the window, since the respondents would not have the opportunity to respond to it.
The court, therefore, rejected the exhibits tendered by the affected 10 witnesses.
Tsammani had said at the beginning of the ruling that Obi called 13 witnesses who were identified as PW1 to PW13.
Of the 13 witnesses, the judge said, only three have their statements on oath filed along with the petition.
“The remaining 10 witnesses were subpoenaed and their witness statements on oath were only filed after the hearing started,” he said.