Obi never requested for 7 weeks to present 50 witnesses — LP
2 min read
Peter Obi, the presidential candidate of the Labour Party
The Labour Party of Nigeria has denied reports that it’s presidential candidate, Mr Peter Obi asked the Court to give him seven weeks to produce witnesses.
Mr Diran Onifade, head of Obi-Datti media in a statement said there was never a time Peter Obi asked the court to give him seven weeks to bring in his witnesses.
The rebuttal is coming after PUNCH had reported that the former Anambra State governor requested for seven weeks to produce his 50 witnesses at the tribunal.
However, Onifade claimed the report is a misrepresentation of what Obi’s legal counsel presented on Saturday, before the Election Petition Tribunal.
The statement reads in part; “In proposing his schedule of witnesses, Eme Awa Kalu, SAN leading the team in court, had told the court that Peter Obi and Labour Party would be presenting 50 witnesses and that these 50 witnesses, will require 7 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.
“It is expected that every media house will assign competent reporters to cover this important case.
“We expect the Punch Newspaper to immediately correct this misrepresentation with the same front page headline with which it was presented to the public.”
