The Presidential Election Petition Court has struck out the testimonies of 10 of the 13 witnesses Peter Obi and the Labour Party called to defend their petition challenging the outcome of the 2023 presidential election.
The tribunal ruled that the petitioner’s request for an extension of time to subpoena 10 additional witnesses was not originally part of the petition.
The court held that this was a new issue introduced into the petition, and the respondents could not respond to it again.
The court held that it was an attempt to amend the petition beyond the legally allowed 21 days.
The court dismissed all the testimonies from the witnesses and struck out all documents they tendered from the court records.
The court held that their witness statements were filed in violation of section 4 (5) (b) of the constitution and were incompetent.
Mr Obi and the Labour Party’s petition will be decided by the testimony of only three witnesses.
