“WE ARE CALLING 170 WITNESSES TO PROSECUTE OUR PETITION WITHIN 4 WEEKS”. DR. NENTAWE, APC TELL TRIBUNAL IN PLATEAU

By: Valentine Adese (JP),

The Governorship Tribunal sitting in Jos, the capital of Plateau State has been told by the All Progressive Congress (APC) and its candidate in the just concluded gubernatorial election in the state, Dr. Nentawe Yilwatda, in Petition No: EPT/PL/GOV/03/2023 that, they would be calling a total of 170 witnesses to prosecute their petition.

The Legal Team of APC and Dr. Nentawe today, also told the Tribunal that, it would only need 4 weeks to prosecute the petition instead of the statutory 6 weeks provided by the Electoral Act.

The 170 witnesses the APC and Dr. Netawe are hoping to call according to their Counsel include Normal/Regular and Expert witnesses.

On its part, the Counsel representing the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has also told the Tribunal that, the Party and its candidate, (now Governor Caleb Mutfwang), would be calling a total of 128 witnesses to defend their victory.

Although there are areas of differences in their suggestions on the time to be allowed for Examining, Cross-examining and Re-examining of witnesses, the Counsels in the petition have submitted their agreed positions on how Certified True Copies (CTC) and contentious documents should be tendered to the Tribunal today, during the Pre-trial session.

More also, they agreed that, objectors to the tendering of documents should indicate so, but give their reasons and arguments for objecting at the end of the trial in a separate address.

In another development, the PDP and Caleb have adopted their issues for determination, dated 27^th May, 2023, today.

The hearing of the Petition has been adjourned to the 6^th of June, 2023 by 12 noon.