By Ishaya Ibrahim
The Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal sitting in Abuja has been informed that the witnesses slated to appear today in favour of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, were attacked on their way to the tribunal.
According to a tweet by the @OfficialPDPNig handle, it said the witnesses who were coming from different destinations to the court, were attacked by the gunmen.
In legal proceedings, it is the practice to furnish all parties in a suit ahead of time with details of witnesses that are to appear in court in order for all to prepare their case.
The tweet did not however mention how many of the witnesses were attacked and whether there were fatalities.
“Information reaching us is to the effect that witnesses that were supposed to testify at the Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal for the PDP today were attacked by unknown gunmen
“The Trial Judge, Justice Mohammed Garba has adjourned hearing on the @OfficialPDPNig and @atiku/@PeterObi’s Petition to Monday, the 15th of July 2019,” the tweet said.
Thursday, July 11 hearing had focused on the server which the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) claimed didn’t exist. Atiku said he won the election going by the result in the server.
The PDP provided witnesses who worked as INEC computer technicians, and submitted documents, including the manual for the 2019 election which described the step by step process of uploading the 2019 election results to the server.