I didn’t ask for 7 weeks to produce witnesses at tribunal – Obi

The presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi, has denied asking for seven weeks to produce 50 witnesses for his petition at the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal.

He said this Sunday in a statement by the Obi-Datti Media Head, Mr Diran Onifade.

Before then, there were reports that Obi had asked the tribunal to give him seven weeks to produce his witnesses at the tribunal, but Onifade said the reports were misleading and a misrepresentation of what Obi’s counsel presented before the tribunal.

The statement reads in part: “Peter Obi did not ask the court to give him seven weeks to bring his witnesses. He only implied he would be through with all 50 of them in seven weeks.

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“In proposing his schedule of witnesses, Eme Awa Kalu (SAN), leading the team, had told the court that Peter Obi and the Labour Party would be presenting 50 witnesses and that these 50 witnesses would require seven weeks to present their evidence before the tribunal.

“At no time did the counsel say that he required seven weeks to produce witnesses as misreported by The Punch. The correct interpretation of what our lawyers told the court unambiguously is that the presentation of our witnesses, from start to finish, will take seven weeks.

“We are not asking the court to wait for seven weeks before we bring in the first witness as The Punch story tries to imply.”