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Our attention has been drawn to a misleading report in the Punch Newspaper of 20th May 2023, captioned “Give me seven weeks to produce witnesses, Obi tells Tribunal” which is a misrepresentation of what our Counsel presented yesterday, before the Election Petition Tribunal.
Peter Obi did not ask the court to give him seven weeks to bring in his witnesses. He only implied he will be through with all 50 of them in seven weeks.
In proposing his schedule of witnesses, Eme Awa Kalu, SAN leading the team in court, had told the court that Peter Obi and Labour Party would be presenting 50 witnesses and that these 50 witnesses, will require 7 weeks to present their evidence before the Tribunal.
At no time did the Counsel say that he required ‘Seven weeks to produce witnesses’ as misreported by the Punch. The correct interpretation of what our lawyers told the court unambiguously is that the presentation of our witnesses, from start to finish, will take seven weeks. We are not asking the court to wait for seven weeks before we bring in the first witness as the Punch story tries to imply.
It is expected that every media house will assign competent reporters to cover this important case.
We expect the Punch Newspaper to immediately correct this misrepresentation with the same front page headline with which it was presented to the public.
Diran Onifade
Head,Obi-Datti Media
21 May 2023
