The Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal on Tuesday rejected the request by the Action Congress presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, to call European Union�s election monitors to give evidence of what they observed during the presidential election.
His lawyer, Chief Emeka Ngige (SAN), had applied to the tribunal to allow his client call the representatives of some of the organisations that monitored the elections, including the monitors from the Democratic Institute, the Republican Institute and the Transition Monitoring Group.
He said it would amount to a violation of his client�s right to fair hearing guaranteed by Section 36 of the 1999 Constitution if he was not allowed to call the witnesses.
The witnesses had already been subpoenaed by the tribunal to tender their reports on the election.
Without allowing the counsel to the respondents to object to the oral application by Abubakar�s lawyer, the tribunal Chairman, Justice James Ogebe, overruled Ngige.
Justice Ogebe said there was an agreement by the parties at the beginning of hearing that oral evidence would not be called.
However, Ngige insisted that his client should be allowed to call the witnesses.
At that point, Justice Ogebe told him to file an application to that effect within 24 hours.
He also ordered the respondents to the petition to file their replies to the application within 24 hours after the service of the application.
He consequently adjourned hearing to Thursday.
Outside the court room, the counsel to President Umaru Yar�Adua and other respondents, Mr. Damien Dodo (SAN), told our correspondent that he would object to calling oral witnesses.
According to him, the practice direction for election petition does not provide for calling of oral evidence.
Chief Mike Ahamba (SAN), the counsel to the All Nigeria, the Peoples Party�s presidential candidate, Maj. Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (rtd), had filed a similar application which was overruled by the tribunal.
Abubakar in his petition is asking the tribunal to hold that the presidential election of April 21 was invalid because he was unlawfully excluded after he was validly nominated by the his party as its candidate, and that the election be nullified.
Source: the Punch