Posted by On Monday in Abuja, none of the three witnesses called by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to defend the results of the presidential election held on February 25 were present in court.
Despite being set to launch their defense, INEC, the organization responsible for the contested election, showed up empty-handed.
Abubakar Balarabe Mahmood SAN, its principal lawyer and a former president of the Nigeria Bar Association NBA, told the court he would be calling three witnesses to refute the Labour Party’s (LP) and Peter Gregory Obi’s claims.
However, he was unable to begin his case since none of his witnesses could make it to court because of personal obligations.
The senior counsel asked the judge for patience and asked if his defense might be postponed.
However, Obi’s lead counsel, Dr. Livy Uzuoku SAN, has publicly voiced shock and dismay at the electoral body’s actions.
He stated in court that the INEC attorney should have confided in him before the hearings began.
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s attorney, Chief Wole Olanipekun SAN, and the All Progressives Congress’s (APC) attorney, Prince Lateef Olasunkanmi Fagbemi SAN, did not object to INEC’s request for a postponement of the hearing on its motion to transfer the matter.
The new date for the election body was set for July 4 by the presiding justice, Justice Haruna Simon Tsammani.