TheCable

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) says it has over 400 witnesses willing to testify at the presidential election petition tribunal.

Levi Uzeugwu, PDP’s lead counsel, said this during proceedings at the tribunal in Abuja on Monday.

Uzeugwu was responding to a question from Mohammed Garba, chairman of the tribunal.

Garba had asked the counsel the number of witnesses he had to present in a bid to determine the time that would be allotted to parties to cross examine the witnesses.

“We have over 400 witnesses [willing] to testify. If we are able to present up to 300 we will review our case,” the PDP counsel said in response to Garba.

He then prayed the tribunal to stand down for 30 minutes to enable them decide on how many witnesses they would eventually present.

His prayer was granted.

Earlier, the court reserved ruling on a pre-hearing on an application by the All Progressives Congress (APC) which challenged the validity of PDP’s petition.

PDP argued that the application – which is similar to another one that the APC had filed – should have been struck out instead of the allowing the ruling party withdraw it.

Atiku Abubakar, PDP presidential candidate, is challenging the declaration of President Muhammadu Buhari by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as winner of the last general election.

Abubakar, in his petition claimed that he polled 18,356,732 votes while Buhari secured 16,741,430, citing INEC’s server.

However, the electoral commission said Buhari polled 15,191,847 votes to defeat the former vice-president who secured 11, 262,978.