Yar'Adua Rejects Atiku's Oral Witness - Daily Champion

28 November 2007
Posted to the web 28 November 2007
Daniel Idonor
Abuja
PRESIDENT Umaru Musa Yar'Adua yesterday opposed an oral request by former Vice President Atiku Abubakar to call local and international monitors to testify in his petition before the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Abuja. Atiku who is also the Action Congress (AC) presidential candidate is challenging the conduct and results of the April 21, 2007 poll of which

Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared President Yar'Adua winner, had applied to invite the European Union (EU) and the transition Monitoring Group (TMG) election, monitors to give evidence at the tribunal.

But one of President Yar'Adua's counsel Damian Dodo (SAN) and the presiding Justice James Ogebe vehemently opposed the request on the ground that it violated an earlier agreement by all the parties that oral evidence would not be called in the hearing of the petition.

Responding to the proceeding shortly after the court session, Dodo said: "Besides the agreement by the parties, the practice direction for election petition does not provide for calling of oral evidence," he said.

Earlier, Justice Ogebe said that Atiku's bid to present his witnesses that would make known their observation and involvement in the April, 2007 general elections was in breach of an earlier agreement by parties in the matter to only depose to an affi davit and not to give oral evidence.

But upon serious argument by Chief Emeka Ngige (SAN), one of Atiku's counsel, the tribunal ordered that the application to that eff ect be made in writing and dispatched to parties involved in the matter before 1 pm yesterday and parties should respond to the

application by 1 pm today and adjourned the matter to 2 pm today for further hearing. Ngige told the court that the witnesses in question are civil servants, independent and are not under the control of a party in an election petition, saying that, it is not practicable or humanly possible or even legally possible to depose those witnesses in advance. Full Story