By Fatima M. Sambo
As the Presidential Petition tribunal continues its sitting in Abuja, the Labour Party's continues downward slide has taken a new cause for the worst.
Abuja Network News learned that as lawyers of APC and PDP along other political parties have agreed on the mode of the trial, only the Labour Party is trying to impose its will on the rest of the parties regarding how the trial should go absent recourse to reason.
Ghani Rotimi also said the Labour Party's sojourn in the tribunal is worse than a herculean task as the party does not have the capacity to carry out what it says it would, most, especially in terms of presenting witnesses to the tribunal.
The full statement on Mr. Rotimi's Facebook Page read thus.
“So today the Tribunal sat. With PDP, it was just about smooth sailing. All the points had been agreed with the other senior counsel, so it was more of reporting to Court what had been agreed. Number of witnesses, schedule of calling those witnesses, time frame and time allotted for all parties during the trial. Furthermore, pending Motions were adopted and adjourned for ruling by the Tribunal.”
“As for LP, first they started with their usual whining that INEC was depriving them of documents. INEC immediately rejected the accusation and even told the court that they asked LP to let them know if they experienced any problems and that LP has not forwarded any complaint until date.“
“Again, LP sought to impose their will on others in terms of Witnesses, scheduling of trial and time frames. This was rejected by other lawyers, who offered their proposals. The Court took note. At the next date for prehearing the Court will direct on how the trial will proceed.“
“The tricky moment, however, was when Chief Niyi Akintola SAN observed that while all other Respondents had agreed to utilize between 7 and 9 days to make their case, LP said they needed 49 days. The problem is that LP has one 3 Witnesses who filed a Witness Statement and 10 Witnesses listed all together.“
“LP wants to call 3 or 10 witnesses in 49 days. They told the Court they plan to call 50 witnesses, but the question is from where? They do not have more than 10 Witnesses in their List of Witnesses, and they cannot amend their petition at this stage to add a list of fresh witnesses.“
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