Counsel to the presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Mr. Peter Obi, Prof. Awa Kalu, Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) on Saturday told the Presidential Election Petitions Court that his client would need seven weeks to substantiate his claims of electoral fraud against INEC’s conduct of the 25 February presidential election.

He said Mr. Obi and LP have lined up 50 witnesses to prove his petition against the All Progressives Congress’ (APC) Senator Bola Tinubu’s victory as Nigeria’s president-elect.

The lawyers to the parties spoke while giving the court their reports of the court’s pre-hearing sessions, which began about two weeks ago.

Prof. Kalu told the court that: ” I was at a meeting this morning with the respondents (APC, INEC and Senator Tinubu’s legal team),” Mr Kalu, a law professor and Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) told the court.

“In terms of the scheduling, the petitioner will require seven weeks,” Mr Kalu said.

He said Mr Obi’s legal team was still having a “few hiccups” with INEC in trying to have a forensic examination of the Bimodal Voters Accreditation System (BVAS) machines.

But INEC’s lawyer, Mr. A. B. Mahmoud, SAN, disagreed with Mr Kalu’s submission concerning difficulty in accessing electoral documents.

“We have 50 witnesses. We have also agreed that our star witnesses will need 30 minutes to testify excluding demonstration of any electronic evidence,” Mr Kalu said.

He further explained, “star witnesses will be cross-examined for 20 minutes, while 10 minutes will be for other witnesses and 10 minutes for each of the respondents to cross-examine the witnesses.”

Mr. Mahmoud, SAN, the electoral umpire’s lawyer said he would need seven days to call two witnesses.

He, however, informed the court that: “there has not been any agreement between” INEC “and the petitioners” concerning the procedure for adjudicating on the petition.

Senator Tinubu’s lawyer, Chief Roland Otaru, SAN, said his client would need nine days to present 21 witnesses to defend his case.

Chief Otaru, SAN said the duration for witnesses that was adopted in PDP’s petition would apply in Mr Obi’s petition.

APC’s lawyer, Chief Adeniyi Akintola, said his client would call seven witnesses to defend its victory at the polls.

Chief Akintola, however, faulted the Labour Party’s list of witnesses. He said the petitioner has only front-loaded three witnesses whereas it proposes to call 50 witnesses.

This makes a total of 30 proposed witnesses lined up by the respondents to Mr Obi’s petition.

The five-member panel of the court led by Justice Haruna Tsammani, directed lawyers to parties to address it on consolidation of the pending three petitions.

Justice Tsammani adjourned the suit until 22 May.

Meanwhile,Saturday’s hearing was marked by protest near the court premises, with the demonstrators holding placards and changing songs expressing electoral fraud messages.