PDP, Atiku Needs Tribunal Period To Be Extended

Former Vice President and presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Atiku Abubakar and his party have asked for more time from the five-man Presidential Election Petition Tribunal in Abuja, to conclude their case.

Friday was the last of the ten days allocated to them to end their case. Atiku and PDP are challenging President Muhammadu Buhari’s victory at February 23, 2019 election. The petitioners, who on Thursday received from the Independent National Electoral Commission a heap of documents to be tendered as an exhibit, gave the hint that they would not be able to conclude their case on Friday through their lawyer Chief Chris Uche (SAN).

According to reports that the documents received from INEC rose from 55 cartons as of when the tribunal closed proceedings on Thursday to 75 as of Friday morning. Uche couched his request for more time as “a modification of the pre-hearing report” in which 10 days period was allocated to the petitioners to present their case and six days for each of the respondents to present their defence.  

Earlier, Justice Mohammed Garba who heads the five-man tribunal, had said the court would not have the afternoon session of the Friday’s proceedings for undisclosed reasons.