PEPC strikes out 10 out of 13 witnesses called by Peter Obi

The Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) on Wednesday, struck out the testimonies of 10 out the 13 witnesses called by Mr Peter Obi and the Labour Party to defend their petition challenging the outcome of the 2023 presidential election.

The PEPC ruled that the petitioner’s request for an extension of time to subpoena 10 additional witnesses was not originally part of the petition.

The court held that this was a new issue introduced into the petition and the respondents could not respond to it again.

The court held that it was an attempt to amend the petition beyond the legally allowed 21 days.

 The court dismisses all the  testimonies from these witnesses and struck out all  documents tendered by them from the court records.

The court held that their witness statements were filed in violation of Section 4 (5) (b) of the constitution and were therefore incompetent.

This means Peter Obi and the LP’s petition will be decided by the testimony of only three witnesses.