The presidential election petition tribunal’s proceedings was on Monday, stalled due to the absence of a witness.
It could be recalled that the Labour Party and its presidential candidate, Peter Obi, filed a petition challenging the victory of the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in the February 25 presidential election.
It was gathered that the petitioners, amongst several issues raised, are contending that Tinubu did not win the election by a majority of lawful votes cast.
Meanwhile, the petitioners closed their case on June 23, after presenting 13 witnesses.
Instead of opening their defence on June 30 as stated in the pre-hearing schedule, the court directed the respondents to do so on July 3.
However, at the resumed hearing, Abubakar Mahmoud, counsel to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), prayed the court for an adjournment, saying although they had three witnesses to call, none of them was present in court.
The lawyer added that he had just be informed by the first witness that he had a family emergency and could not make it to court.
Livy Uzoukwu, counsel to the petitioner; Wole Olanipekun, Tinubu’s counsel; Lateef Fagbemi, counsel for the All Progressives Congress (APC); did not oppose the request for adjournment.
The five-member panel of the court led by Haruna Tsammani, therefore adjourned the matter to Tuesday for INEC to open its defence.